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Learning
Landscapes is a multifaceted experiential
education program that creates outdoor
classrooms on public school grounds along with
detailed curricula that are linked to Virginia
Standards of Learning (SOLs).
Learning
Landscapes not only builds and maintains the
outdoor classroom areas at each school but also
implements a fully developed curriculum that is
tailored to each grade level.
As standardized testing has become an
evermore present part of the public education
system teachers are pressed for time and
flexibility.
Our goal is to give teachers and students
a way to meet their testing goals using
integrated subject matter, experiential learning
and the natural environment.
Learning Landscapes provides students of
diverse learning abilities and styles the
opportunity to flourish by catering to the whole
child.

Each
Learning Landscapes outdoor classroom is
different as they are tailored to the individual
interests, needs and physical site of each
school. Additionally,
each outdoor classroom is made up of multiple
components which occur in different combinations
at each school.
These components include:
classroom
pavilions, pollinator gardens, vegetable
gardens, rain gardens,
small ponds and aquatic
gardens, compost piles,
nature trails,
GLOBE
Weather stations, and
wildlife feeding/viewing
stations.
At
the elementary level, Learning Landscapes has an
individual program for each grade level that
corresponds to the classroom material being
covered at the time of year the gardens are
planted and harvested.
Most of the elementary programs center
around planting gardens in the spring and
returning the following fall (in the subsequent
grade) to harvest, prepare and eat what they
grew. This
model not only follows the growing season but
provides continuity from one grade to the next
so that students are continually building on
what they have previously learned.
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In
the News:
WCYB |
Learning Landscapes’ Elementary
Programs:
At
the middle and high school levels students
participate in a variety of programs both during
the school day and in an afterschool setting.
Learning Landscapes provides service
opportunities for Washington County Community
Scholars, a program through which students can
earn credit to attend college courses free of
charge at Virginia Highlands Community College.
Mentoring is an important part of Learning
Landscapes.
Students at the middle and high school
levels work with our elementary students and we
also engage local college students to mentor
both middle school and elementary students.
Working with college students gives our
younger students exposure to areas of study they
may not have known about and increases their
interest in college in general.
Please feel free to contact us if you
know of a group that would like to volunteer for
work days or other activities.
At
the moment, Learning Landscapes has more demand
than we can satisfy with our current resources.
It is very important to us that we
maintain our commitment and involvement in our
existing programs and to do that we must ensure
that we don’t take on more than we can handle.
Learning Landscapes currently has a
waiting list for programs and schools that would
like to participate in the program.
Unfortunately, until funding and supplies
are secured for our existing programs we do not
have the capacity to expand.
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