Outdoor Classroom

The Abingdon Outdoor Classroom is a school garden maintained by the science lead teacher and science lab teacher Jordan Kivitz. Students in all grade levels visit the garden’s nine plots as a part of theirSTE(A)M instruction. Gardening offers hands-on, experiential learning opportunities that integrate other subject areas including social studies, math, language arts, visual arts, and health.

Our garden was recently featured on APS Green Scene. Abingdon staff members volunteered in the garden as part of the 2015 Green Apple Day of Service, a national event that gives communities the opportunity to transform schools into healthy, safe, and productive learning environments through local service projects.

We are very grateful to the Abingdon PTA for their generous support of the Outdoor Classroom. The garden has flourished thanks to the help of parents and students who donate their time tilling, planting, weeding, and harvesting the crops. Abingdon is proud of this opportunity to learn about gardening, taste healthy foods they have helped to grow, learn about the interdependency of organisms in our ecosystem, along with the importance of conservation.

Third grade teacher Laura Shaw maintains a beautiful pollinator garden featuring milkweed, dill, and yarrow, among many other plants to study life cycles.

Last summer Kimberlee Pooler’s first grade class planted sunflower seeds that grew to heights of over 12 feet!