School Yards
Table of Contents
Benefits of School Yards
Connecting Students with Nature
School yards are a place where many students first get up and close with nature, be it insects, weeds, mint in a sensory garden, bird watching or picking up leaves and sticks.
Click the Connecting Students with Nature button to explore other ways to connect students with nature.
Heat Island Effect
Tarmac and concrete contribute to heat islands, but green school yards can help reduce the temperatures on school campus, and even for the surrounding community.
Strategically planted trees can even help protect the school building itself from weather extremes.
Mental Health
Science has shown that both adults and children benefit from better mental health when they are allowed to spend time outside.
For other ways to help improve mental health, click the Mental Health button.
Physical Health
Being able to play outside can help students maintain healthy body weight, improve muscle mass and physical coordination.
Greenery boosts the health effects of going outside by providing cleaner air. The more greenery such as bushes and trees a school has on their property, the cleaner the air around that school.
Student Vision
Students are increasingly suffering from near sightedness, and this increases their risk of vision loss later in life.
Spending too much time focusing on things close to their faces, and not getting enough sunlight are both increasingly important factors in this change.
Encouraging children to play outside, during daylight hours has been proven to strengthen their eyes, and even reverse national vision loss when countries have implemented programs to encourage more outside play and school programs.
Why So Many People Need Glasses Now
6:57 minute video explains growing vision loss rates, and how outdoor class time can help protect students from a lifetime of vision loss.
Water Management
School yards can act as a sponge to absorb storm water that might otherwise damage the school. Features like rain barrels can help supply the school with an eco-friendly source of water, and rain gardens can provide a learning opportunity as frogs and other species are drawn to the wet areas.
Guides & Tools
Lesson Plans & Curriculums
Some of these are labeled as "at home" but the elements can easily be used on a playground.
How to Create a Natural Playground at Home "Natural elements inspire open-ended play and resilience in children."
Nature Play at Home: A Guide for Boosting Your Children’s Healthy Development and Creativity (PDF) This guide is full of colourful photos and uses a shovel rating to indicate difficulty levels of each project.
Tinkergarten provides lesson plans and more for teachers and families. They also have a directory to help parents "Find a Local Teacher".
UK
Hedgeucation Leaflet (PDF) "This work-sheet aims to enthuse and educate children, about the unique hedgerows that make Devon so special. Hedgeucation addresses many topics within the national curriculum and provides a useful teaching tool both in the countryside and classroom. Through the fun games and activities found throughout these pages, you can explore the hedgerow world and discover for yourself why Devon can be so proud of its hedges."
Schoolyard Planning & Design
Collaborative Design Guides: Transforming Philadelphia’s Schoolyards (PDF)
How to Create a Community Schoolyard (PDF) This gives a step-by-step guide with photos. They cover funding, design priorities, etc.
The Inter Twine: Greening Schoolyards Collective "provides resources, best practices, and a platform for collaboration while connecting a diverse range of stakeholders who are working toward improving the state of our children’s health, ability to succeed and overall school experience. Our focus will be 1) finding more funding for our members' work, 2) assuring that we are building the best and most sustainable projects possible, and 3) providing proper support for teachers.
Each participating organization in the Collective brings knowledge and strengths to this work. Collectively, we will share our resources and assets with our many collaborative partners, and advance the movement to connect children with nature’s many benefits."Urban Innovative Actions: Upscaling with a vision - The school yard as a school
PlaneteerHandbook Directories & Guide Pages
Identify Appropriate Species
Find out which species are right for your area with the Wildflowers directory which can help you pick the right plants for your area.
Check the Invasive Species directory to identify any organisms that shoudn't be in your area. Some of the resources include PDFs, apps, contact information for reporting sightings, even recipes for how to eat certain species.
Types of Garden
The following types may be appropriate or of particular use in a school yard.
Sensory gardens use a combination of non-toxic, hornless plants and other elements to entice the students' senses, which in turn provides various health and wellness benefits. These can include:
Hearing - Birdsong, frog song, water features, rustling grass, chimes, tree leaves.
Sight - Wildflowers (better for wildlife than introduced species), wildlife (attracted by native plants), trees, grasses, water features, art installations.
Smell - flowers, mint, water features
Taste - mint, berries, tomatoes, sweet pea
Touch - Native grasses (their long grain strands are fun to run between fingers), water, flowers, stone, succulents, seed pods and pine cones, hairy Conker shells, sticks, sand.
These are regular flower beds for much of the year, but fill up with rain water to create temporary ponds during heavy rain and/or the rain season. They help prevent flooding and pollution run off, as well as food and shelter for wildlife. If they last long enough, they can help amphibians such as frogs to reproduce, which is an excellent cycle for children to learn about.
Wildlife gardens help the environment by supporting wild species with food, water, hiding places, and materials for nest building. By providing all of these things close to a school, those species are more likely to be seen by curious students, which in turn can spark a desire to learn about and protect them as members of our communities.
This is a particularly good solution for regions which suffer from long or extreme droughts. The careful choice in plants means less water is needed throughout the year to keep the plants alive. Xeriscaping uses stones or similar types of mulch, eliminating the need for loud, costly, high-pollution alternatives such as grass lawns.
Resources
Wild Spaces Score Sheet (for Schools) (PDF) scroll down to "Downloads"
North America
USA
Iowa
Tall Grass Prairie Center: Educator Resources "The links below have been created by the staff of the Tallgrass Prairie Center and Green Iowa AmeriCorps members over the years and provide a range of information, lessons, activities, and other resources for the formal and informal educator. The aim of this page is to assist teachers of all varieties with options and ideas to connect youth to the outdoors and our lost and limited landscape of Iowa tallgrass prairie."
Texas
Organizations & Programs
Europe
Netherlands
Rotterdam’s Green Blue Schoolyards Programme "addresses child-friendliness and climate adaptation agendas with a common solution: more nature in schoolyards. The programme supports schools to transform their outdoor spaces into natural play areas for outdoor educational projects and community use."
UK
Butterfly Conservation: Turn your school into a Wild Space! "Creating a Wild Space is an easy way to help butterflies and moths in your school grounds. Start your Wild Space journey with our lesson plan and associated activities."
Earthwatch Europe: Green Earth Schools "Transforming school grounds into nature-rich spaces for exceptional outdoor learning and play"
1:25 minute video invighting schools across Britain to join in and help protect our threatened pollinators.
North America
The Inter Twine: Greening Schoolyards Collective "provides resources, best practices, and a platform for collaboration while connecting a diverse range of stakeholders who are working toward improving the state of our children’s health, ability to succeed and overall school experience. Our focus will be 1) finding more funding for our members' work, 2) assuring that we are building the best and most sustainable projects possible, and 3) providing proper support for teachers.
Each participating organization in the Collective brings knowledge and strengths to this work. Collectively, we will share our resources and assets with our many collaborative partners, and advance the movement to connect children with nature’s many benefits."
Canada
Pollinator Partnership Canada "is a registered charity dedicated to the protection and promotion of pollinators and their ecosystems through conservation, education, and research."
Wild Ones "promotes native landscapes through education, advocacy, and collaborative action."
California
Flows to Bay: Resilient San Carlos Schoolyards "San Carlos School District’s vision is to use its school grounds to demonstrate ecological and social resilience while strengthening children’s education and well-being, promoting school community health, adapting to a changing climate, and managing stormwater more sustainably. The District, in partnership with the City/County Association of Governments of San Mateo County, seeks to create a replicable model for other school districts to promote climate and community resilience through heat and stormwater management."
New Jersey
Paterson: School Yards "The City of Paterson and the Paterson Public Schools are committed to transforming the city’s school grounds into nature-filled greenspaces where children can connect to the natural world and enjoy healthy, active time outdoors."
Oregon
Trust for Public Land: Oregon Rural Community Schoolyards Program "Helping Oregon communities flourish one schoolyard at a time"
Health & Outdoors: Chiloquin "A coalition of local, national, and tribal partners are teaming up to build a Green Schoolyard at Chiloquin Elementary School. The Green Schoolyard will be a multi-benefit space, bringing the health benefits of nature to our children and restoring native habitat. The Schoolyard will also be open to the community as a public park during non-school hours, making this a safe place for kids and families to be active and connect to our land."
Oceana
Australia
Greening Australia: Cooling the Schools Sydney "We are working with students and teachers to add thousands of native trees and plants to schoolyards, creating cooler, greener, more inviting spaces for learning and play. As they plant, students learn firsthand about the environmental and cultural benefits of planting native trees for First Nations cultures, urban cooling and biodiversity."
Maps
North America
USA
Alabama
The Alabama Outdoor Classrooms Map (Interactive) "provides information about your county's local schools that are developing, using, and sustaining their outdoor classrooms through the Alabama Outdoor Classroom Program. You can then click on the school's name to review details about each school's outdoor classroom."
Grants
Click the Grants for Schools & Teachers button to find grants for your school yard projects.
North America
Mexico
Community Seed Grants (CSG) "are available once every year for school gardens and community organizations with regional and cultural connection to the NS/S seed collection. They are offered to garden projects working toward collective food security, seed sovereignty, traditional knowledge, education, and other efforts of community wellness. We do not require CSG recipients to save and return seeds, but encourage those who are able to do so, to provide seeds for their community.
Our region of focus is the Southwest, which generally includes: Arizona, New Mexico, southern Utah, southern Colorado, western Oklahoma, western Texas, southern California, southern Nevada, and northwest Mexico. Native communities in arid places outside of this region may also apply.
We strive to support projects in Mexico. Due to mailing restrictions it is best if you have someone in the US who can receive and bring the seeds to Mexico.
USA
Community Seed Grants (CSG) "are available once every year for school gardens and community organizations with regional and cultural connection to the NS/S seed collection. They are offered to garden projects working toward collective food security, seed sovereignty, traditional knowledge, education, and other efforts of community wellness. We do not require CSG recipients to save and return seeds, but encourage those who are able to do so, to provide seeds for their community.
Our region of focus is the Southwest, which generally includes: Arizona, New Mexico, southern Utah, southern Colorado, western Oklahoma, western Texas, southern California, southern Nevada, and northwest Mexico. Native communities in arid places outside of this region may also apply.
We strive to support projects in Mexico. Due to mailing restrictions it is best if you have someone in the US who can receive and bring the seeds to Mexico.
Missouri
Prairie Garden Grants Program "Gardening and other conservation groups, parks, schools, and other entities in Missouri and immediately surrounding states are invited to submit proposals to MPF’s Prairie Garden Grants Program. In 2024, MPF would like to award several grants to help fund the establishment or improvement of prairie gardens or plantings. Grants will not exceed $800 each. Those with smaller projects are encouraged to apply as well. Matching funds are not required, but proposals with secured matching funds may be evaluated higher than others."
Texas
Monarch Garden Grants 🦋 "The Native Plant Society of Texas awards small grants to nature centers, schools, educational groups and others to help fund development of Monarch demonstration gardens or Monarch Waystations using native plants on public sites in Texas. The purpose of this program is to educate members, applicants, and the public about Monarch conservation and native plants, and to encourage restoration of Monarch habitats throughout the Texas migration flyway."
Oceana
Australia
Western Australia
Native Plant Subsidy "Native plants provide natural food sources and shelter for native animals, are water wise and can help cool your home naturally. To help you create a waterwise garden, the City of Cockburn offers native plant subsidies to both residents and schools."