Green Schoolyards America seeks to transform asphalt-covered school grounds into park-like green spaces that improve children’s well-being, learning and play while contributing to their communities’ ecological health and climate resilience. They work to change the paradigm for school ground design, use, and management so all students will have access to the natural world in the places they already visit on a daily basis. Across the country, children of all ages attend school on grounds with acres of asphalt and grass, and very few trees to provide shade or protection from increasing heat and a shifting climate.
Before and After One Year at Commodore Sloat Elementary in California
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- Before of Commodore Sloat Elementary in California
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- After one year at Commodore Sloat Elementary in California
Schoolyard forests, in contrast, are climate oases on school campuses, designed to nurture and protect students from extreme heat and to build resilience for an unknown future. Schoolyard forests include trees planted in large groves where students can access them to take shelter when the weather is hot, a high diversity of climate-adapted trees and species with large canopies, are designed to encourage student access to shade during outdoor learning, physical activities, social gatherings, and play, adapted for most campus sizes and age groups and engage students in design, planting, stewardship, and learning.
They offer resources such as a National Outdoor Learning Library of Practical Resources for greening school grounds and taking learning outside, articles that are an introduction to the green schoolyard field with photos showing the transformation, free Schoolyard Activity Guides and books! For more information, go to Green Schoolyards America.
