Designing school grounds with children.

Design:

"To Conceive in the Mind"

Close your eyes and remember a time when you were outside and you were so happy you had a big smile on your face. Imagine yourself there again. Check to see if you are smiling as you think about it. If not, start over again. The place you are thinking of has to be one that really makes you smile.

Where are you? What are you doing? Who are you with? What do you see?

When we ask children these questions, many tell us about gardening with a grandparent. They may remember watching a bee gather nectar from a flower. Some remember hunting for frogs at a neighborhood pond. Others remember lying under a tree in the cool shade on a hot day.

We asked the children at Glover Elementary School in Milton, Mass., to help design a new outdoor space when their school building was being renovated. After remembering and imagining, we asked the children: What would you want to have in your outdoor space at school?

Lists are a good way to start planning. The children made lists and drew plans for their courtyard. Read their list below. Then make your own list of the things you would like to have or do outside at your school.

Places to sit in the shade Pathways to walk on Tables to eat lunch and a snack A pond with wildlife Birdhouses A garden for growing pumpkins Flowers to attract butterflies Rocks to climb and sit on Trees with pretty colors in the fall

Design:

"To Make a Plan For"

Once you have a list of the things you want, you need a measured map of your site.

Your map should show the size of the outdoor space, the pathways and doors that open onto it, and the existing trees and shrubs. It should show where there are hills and low spots. Design is about matching the conditions of the site with the things you want to build and grow.

Would you put your pond on the top of a hill, or down low where rainwater will drain into it? Would you plant a tree to shade the hot south side of the building, or plant it on the dark north side?

Would you put the birdfeeder right next to a bench, or farther away so you can sit and watch the birds without scaring them?

If there is a pathway outside a door, will it take you where you want to go?

Look at the plan we made with the children of Glover Elementary School and see if you can figure out why the farm garden is where it is, why the pathway gets so wide, where you would go to feed the birds. Then make a plan for your own school garden.

There are all kinds of gardens. Even if you can't build one right now, you can design it in your mind.

The writer-designer is co-principal, with Ruth Parnall, of Learning by the Yard, Consultants to School Grounds, in Conway, Massachusetts, and a PhD. Candidate at the College of Design at North Carolina State University. She helps children, parents and teachers design the outdoors for learning at their schools.