June 6, 2024 – Gibson Elementary School officially unveiled their new outdoor classroom this week by welcoming families to their campus for a series of graduation ceremonies.
The outdoor classroom is a project that has required several years of work to come to fruition. The school secured a $14,000 grant from the North Carolina Youth Outdoor Engagement Commission in 2022, and ever since then, they’ve been constantly developing and reworking plans for an affordable and accessible space where students can enjoy classes outdoors. Claudia Townsend, an EC Pre-K teacher at Gibson and the key organizer behind the project, has discovered a whole new appreciation for the complexities of the capital improvement projects that the district undertakes to maximize student opportunities.
“The district actually has more support in place now for people pursuing grants than when we got started,” Townsend said. “That’s good, because capital projects are so much bigger than I ever would have guessed.”
Fortunately, the school was well supported by community partners, who offered additional funding and provided discounts on labor and supplies. Townsend mentioned Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools Property Manager David Hutchens, Moorefield Engineering, Frank Blum Construction Company, Loflin Concrete Company, Vulcan Materials, Smith Phillips, NC Community Garden Partners, Pre-K Teacher William Gormsen, the Whitener Foundation, and countless Gibson students, parents, and staff who volunteered as all being deserving of a special thanks.
“There are a lot of moving parts in a project like this, and I want to make sure we thank everyone whose work made this possible,” Townsend said.
The outdoor classroom is primarily meant to enhance lessons that students learn about the natural world, specifically by giving them access to the school’s garden so they can work hands-on with plants and learn more about the science of agriculture. There are also numerous outdoor events that the space has already been useful for, including a few messy activities during the school’s recent Duke Energy Science Night. The official opening allowed students and their families to celebrate graduation one class at a time, having ice cream sundaes together and enjoying a beautiful day. There’s a world of possibilities open to the school now that the outdoor classroom is complete, and both teachers and students are looking forward to unlocking them all.
“We want to enhance what our students are learning in the classroom with this space,” Townsend said. “We want to give our students all of the hands-on opportunities we can.”