NO ONE MISSES CLASSROOMS:

Morgan Cooper, a fourth/fifth grade teacher at Jaffrey Grade School, thought a lot about how the return to school was going to go throughout last summer - and how it could be done safely.

As an outdoors person, she wanted to incorporate time during the day outside to give the kids a break and she found it was exactly what her students needed.

Katherine Nickel, who is in her first year teaching sixth grade at Pine Hill at High Mowing School in Wilton, said she loves the outdoors and was excited about the opportunity to be in nature every day. She said many children in this generation don't spend enough time outside, and offering them the chance to learn in the elements has afforded her to use the world around her to educate.

"If you're out here regularly, something starts to happen," Nickel said. She said the students have been relaxed and less stressed, something she's found to be the case spending time outside. "One of the best ways to get rid of fear is to take yourself into the outdoor."

Jenn Wilenta, a first year kindergarten teacher at Pine Hill, is also an outdoors person and said the being immersed in nature year-round has a beauty to it.

"It's really special and unique," Wilenta said. "It's a new space for me as well so it's an amazing adventure."

Marisa Gurses, the wellness/Spanish teacher at Mountain Shadows School in Dublin, said this year has been incredibly beneficial for the students.

"This year has been one of wonderful adventure," she said. "And it's all an experiment."

Setup

Cooper found a spot behind the United Church of Jaffrey, where there is a ravine, some water and plenty to explore. It takes less than 10 minutes to walk to and is perfect.

"I happened upon it and I claimed it quickly," she said. "That was my goal from day one, to find a space."

Cooper secured some screen houses and a canopy for the fall and two tents that are used now during the colder months, which the church has offered to keep in their shed. The amount of time spent outside has varied since they returned to school last month, but within the next two weeks Cooper said the plan would be to spend an hour and a half in the morning and another hour in the afternoon.

They have grain bags to sit on, which double as sleds they use to go down the plowed snow banks from the church parking lot, and took some bigger logs in the area and made a circle for them to be together and off the ground.

"They have been very creative in building their classroom," she said.

Gurses said they have carport tents and wooden platforms setup on campus that keep students off the snowy ground and protected from the elements. There are four tents for the eight grades and no more than eight people in a tent at one time. As you could imagine, the scheduling is a daily task.

"We just need to go one day at a time," she said.

There are two fire pits and given the amount the kids are moving around "pretty much anywhere you go there's a place to warm up," she said.

For Wilenta and Nickel the school day begins the same way each morning. They arrive at their outdoor classrooms at Pine Hill and get the fire started so their students have a place to warm up throughout the day.

It's just what needs to be done to get the day going, as the students in kindergarten through eighth grade are outside for the entire day except for a few rare instances.

The decision was made for Pine Hill students to return to school full-time for the 2020-21 school year, with one caveat - classes would be outside, all day. Tents were built using trees harvested from the school's land, fire pits were created for each classroom and plans put in place on how to deal with all the elements.

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