UCD’s Early Childhood Lab earns national recognition
The children who attend the Early Childhood Lab School at the UC Davis Center for Child and Family Studies probably aren’t much impressed by the school’s recent designation as a nationally certified “Nature Explore Classroom.”
They’re too busy hiding in the bamboo forest, looking for bugs under rocks, following the meandering flagstone path through the native grasses and building structures in the “messy materials” area.
But the three-year project that transformed this outdoor oasis between First Street and the UC Davis Arboretum has indeed placed the program in select company.
Only 120 or so programs nationwide — and no others in the Sacramento area — have earned national certification from the Arbor Day Foundation and Dimensions Educational Research Foundation. That certification is for creating outdoor learning environments that integrate natural materials, climbing structures, garden areas, pathways and more to connect children to nature.
In bestowing the certification on the Early Childhood Lab, the Arbor Day Foundation praised the school for taking “an important leadership role in a profoundly needed initiative to connect young children with nature, setting a wonderful example for education centers across the country.”
It was Janet Thompson, director of the lab school, who set things in motion several years ago. She was familiar with the Nature Explore Classroom program and thought the school, with its unique location, not to mention access to Arboretum resources, would be a perfect fit.
“We would share their commitment that nature is an integral part of education,” Thompson said of the program, “designing an outdoor space structured so that wherever the children look, there are invitations to engage with nature.”
And they did.
With $3,000 worth of materials from the Arbor Day Foundation to seed the project, they added a sand area bordered by large rocks, a reading hut and flagstone pathways through native grasses that three little girls one afternoon last week were wandering in, watering cans in hand.
There’s also a “bamboo forest” that serves a dual purpose: shielding the area from busy First Street on the north while also providing the children with a place to wander semi-privately, just one of the many prized components of a nature explore classroom.
“One of the things they ask for is private areas for children to explore,” Thompson said. “This gives them the illusion that they’re hidden.”
The “messy materials” area in the northwest corner features bamboo clippings, river rocks, tree stumps and other materials that children use to build their own little structures. A teepee was a recent project.
And because many of the materials are heavy, the children have to cooperate with each other in the building process.
“There’s lots of social problem-solving going on,” Thompson noted.
Outdoor time here is not the traditional “recess” of other schools; rather, it’s an extension of the learning that goes on indoors. Children themselves initiate activities while the many adults observe first, then engage.
One recent sunny afternoon, senior preschool program coordinator Kelly Twibell was assisting a trio of little girls with science buckets in hand who wanted to look under rocks for bugs and worms.
Many of these children, Thompson noted, don’t get many opportunities to explore nature like this. About half of them are children of UCD students and many live in student housing. Even many of the practicum students who work here are getting their first immersion in the natural world — something that pushes boundaries for a few.
“Some tend to be hesitant at first around bugs and bees and prickly things,” Thompson noted. “And when adults recoil, children tend to pick up on that.”
That’s why much of the learning that goes on here, she said, is about attitudes, and one of the many benefits “is that the lines between stereotypical ‘boy’ play and ‘girl’ play are blurred.
“They all run together, garden together,” she explained.
The Early Childhood Lab School has been at UCD in one form or another since around 1963.
It serves as a site for research involving young children, and provides an educational experience for students studying child development. The program enrolls 82 children: 10 infants, 12 toddlers and 60 preschoolers.
Each class is staffed by a head teacher, a program coordinator and a handful of undergraduate students enrolled in the Communication and Interaction with Young Children course.
“Officially,” Thompson noted, “the children are here for the benefit of the students.”
Unofficially, it is a very popular preschool, open not just to UCD families, but to the community at large.
Thompson says that despite their recent national certification, the outdoor learning area is still a work in progress. Blueprints drawn up by a landscape architect show many features yet to be added, from a wooden climbing structure around a central tree to a water-play area.
“We can renovate two areas a year within our budgetary constraints,” Thompson explained.
But so far, she’s thrilled with the results.
“I’m very happy with it. It’s a work in progress, but it’s fine for now and when we have more resources, we’ll move ahead.”
For more information on the Early Childhood Lab School, visit http://ccfs.ucdavis.edu/EarlyChildhoodLaboratory.html.
— Reach Anne Ternus-Bellamy at aternus@davisenterprise.net or (530) 747-8051. Follow her on Twitter at @ATernusBellamy
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Posted by Anne Ternus-Bellamy
on Dec 7 2011.
Last Login: Wed 22 Feb 2012 05:16:44 PM PST
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