An elementary school in Sackville has turned the great outdoors into a classroom where students don't have to use their indoor voices.
Salem Elementary School has a new outdoor classroom, built in the shape of a pirate ship.
The K-4 students enthusiastically hoisted a traditional Jolly Roger flag bearing a skull and crossbones on Thursday, during the official opening of the wooden ship.
"The kids are so involved, you would not believe it," said principal Ada Phinney. "They are just busy out here — and busy in a good way," she said.
"There's so much to feel and smell and hear, and all of their senses, I think, really absorb what is going on out here. It's a learning environment that is like no other."
The wooden pirate ship has proven popular with the students at Salem Elementary School, says principal Ada Phinney. (Tori Weldon/CBC)
Phinney, who loves the outdoors, came up with the idea of getting students outside more while on yard duty one day last year.
"It was one of those sort of pie in the sky kind of dream you have," she said.
Knowing school resources were already stretched thin, she turned to the community to help turn her "vision" into reality.
Michael Fox, a geography and environment professor at Mount Allison University, was the first to answer the call, filling out provincial and municipal government grant applications and bringing other community groups on board, such as the Rotary Club and Ducks Unlimited.
'They get to move, they get to breathe fresh air, they get to see nature all around them.'- Lucy Evans, teacher
"We've built a peninsula out into the wetland and we have created a pirate ship — totally the idea of the students, to sit in a learning environment in an enclosed area. And then we have a number of other facilities, a covered classroom space where basically tree stumps are used to have seating for the class"
Fox says children in this part of the country spend an average of 98 per cent of their time inside.
He, along with teachers and parents, hope the pirate ship can help change those statistics at Salem Elementary.
"We have an outdoor environmental education instructor working with the teachers and the school administration and she's been out three, four times a day with every class," Fox said.
The project has cost about $75,000 to date, including the pirate ship, seating, garden beds, draining, and outdoor education curriculum specialist. About $30,000 more is expected to be needed for additional equipment, officials said.
Money well spent, according to teachers, like Lucy Evans.
"It's wonderful. The children love it," she said. "When you look out [the windows of the pirate ship], you see the water of the wetlands and it feels like you're floating right in water. It's magic."
"They get to move, they get to breathe fresh air, they get to see nature all around them … And they work together really well outside," said Evans.
"They make connections with what we've done outside to when we're inside and we're reading books, or we're looking at pictures, or we're talking about other things — they make all kinds of connections. It's a fabulous opportunity for learning."
Evans loves it so much, she says she plans to be teaching outside, even when the snow comes.
"Winter is when we need to get outside the most, so we'll be using it a lot, I imagine," she said.
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