Sugar Creek Elementary School began work on a new outdoor classroom on Wednesday, March 15.

Sugar Creek Elementary students, parents, faculty, and community volunteers met for their first Outdoor Classroom Build Day to build and install over 250 feet of a nature pathway and a rain garden as the first phase in their outdoor classroom development.

“Today was the first day, and we had some fathers that donated their time and some local businesses and quite a few donations. Then a Publix store sent out a serve team, also, to come and work, and we got our first things done that we had planned for today,” Beth Thompson said.

Outdoor classrooms exist to provide hands-on, outdoor learning opportunities that allow students to utilize multi-disciplinary skills outside of the traditional classroom.

“It provides an area to meet standards for kindergarten through fifth grade. There’s a sensory area. It’s handicap accessible for students, just to provide a different learning space than what they already get,” Thompson said.

The outdoor classroom was made possible by a grant, as well as donations.

“The funds and materials for Sugar Creek’s new outdoor classroom learning stations come from an Alabama Mountains, Rivers & Valleys Resource Conservation and Development Council Grant along with donations from parents, Publix and other local businesses,” April Waltz with the Alabama Wildlife Federation said.

On April 20, there will be another Outdoor Classroom Build Day for the construction of a butterfly garden, pollinator garden, frog and toad habitat, and more.