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The article describes how Mary Help of Christians Preschool and Miami Country Day School use dedicated outdoor classrooms, especially children’s gardens, to build curiosity and support language, literacy, and early mathematical concepts. It details weekly garden activities, nature observation, and animal-focused learning in the ACES lab, alongside lessons learned about planning and maintaining outdoor spaces over time.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":57,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/general/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/turning-our-world-of-learning-inside-out-part-1-outdoor-learning-experiences/600624/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/turning-our-world-of-learning-inside-out-part-1-outdoor-learning-experiences/600624.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"dhado","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-29","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":8},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"How do the programs move outdoor time beyond recess or free play?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"They design outdoor learning environments with purposeful activities, such as dedicated gardens and nature-focused experiences, so students’ outdoor time becomes structured learning through exploration.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"What role do children’s gardens play in these programs?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"The gardens provide ongoing opportunities to grow vegetables and flowers, observe butterflies and caterpillars, and support frequent hands-on outdoor learning at least once per week.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What activities occur in the ACES lab at Miami Country Day School?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"ACES supports structured and unstructured natural play through weekly animal study and gardening, including close-up encounters, planting and caring for a garden, and hands-on sensory learning like catching caterpillars and tasting greens.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},600624,1792091065,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":56,"category_name":57,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":8,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":39,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":129,"read_time":143},5909893218464,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_085a072bc5b1113ac321206ff7593b45","Turning Our World of Learning Inside Out!  \n\n| How did two early childhood programs transform their outdoor learn- | Laura Monsalvatge, |\n| --- | --- |\n| ing experiences for young children? Read this article to find out how | Kris Long, and |\n| programs can improve the outdoor learning experiences for children. | Lilia DiBello |\n\nEarly childhood professionals constantly reflect upon how to improve the quality of educational experiences for young children. We are often encouraged to create centers which support the development of language, literacy and mathematical concepts inside the classroom, but we often forget that there is an untapped world of learning just outside our classroom door. This article describes the story of two South Florida early childhood programs that took the challenge and made students’outdoor time more than just recess or free play. These programs encouraged the faculty to be purposeful with their approach to learning by addressing the outdoor environment. They turned their early childhood world‘inside out’ by creating outdoor learning environments that tapped into the natural curiosity of all young learners.  \nMary Help of Christians Preschool (MHOC) in Parkland, Florida and Miami Country Day School (MCDS) in Miami Shores, Florida, both started their outdoor classrooms with the creation of a dedicated children’s garden. The gardens offered a place to grow vegetables and flowers and were surrounded with a butterfly garden to attract local species of butterflies for observation. Classrooms visited the garden at least once per week to tend vegetables, dig in the dirt and delight in discoveries of butterflies and caterpillars. Recognizing that the garden provided a unique time and place for the children to experience outdoors-the question arose: How can we give the children more opportunities to experience nature? Each school took its journey in a unique direction as outdoor classrooms were created. The story of each unique program is shared, along with a short list of lessons learned for other programs to consider as they seek to create better outdoor spaces for learning.  \nMiami Country Day School (MCDS) in Miami Shores, Florida  \nMiami Country Day School (MCDS) was established in 1938 and became a co-educational school in the 1970’s. It has grown from a K-8 program to a PreK-12th grade college preparatory school. The school focuses on the whole child. The Early Childhood Program is a playbased program that educates young children through indoor and outdoor play, giving children many opportunities to explore and have valuable learning experiences.  \nThere are many outdoor arenas to explore, create and play with purpose (Davis & Elliott, 2004) . MCDS has pathways that lead to treasures throughout the campus. It has an outdoor “mud area” that is being restored, a garden with fairy homes, fluid play area, a “jungle”/tricycle area, and big soft foam building blocks.  \nThe work of children is play.  \nOutdoor areas naturally lend themselves to literacy development in young children. Oral language and imagination are the only true pieces of equipment a teacher and student need to have outside to enhance literacy. The work of children is play and waiting outside our classroom doors are numerous opportunities for young children to learn and grow.  \nIn the planning stage for the new playground, the kindergarten students were invited to illustrate what their dream playground would look like. Their imaginations  \nDimensions of Early Childhood Vol 41, No 3, 2013  23  \nTurning Our World of Learning Inside Out!  \nwere much better than real life. Amuch-needed playground for threeand four-year olds became a reality this year. It is a musical playground and provides wonderful opportunities for gross motor skills to be developed such as climbing, balancing, rolling, crawling and running.  \nThe Abess Center for Environmental Studies (the ACES lab) provides countless opportunities for both structured and unstructured natural","cbCaikJw3PNjm8OZ","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaikJw3PNjm8OZ","pdf",1074917,"English","# Turning Our World of Learning Inside Out!\n## Outdoor learning beyond recess\n## Miami Country Day School overview\n## Literacy and play outdoors\n## Garden, playground, and ACES lab experiences\n## Planning and lessons learned","[{\"question\":\"How do the programs move outdoor time beyond recess or free play?\",\"answer\":\"They design outdoor learning environments with purposeful activities, such as dedicated gardens and nature-focused experiences, so students’ outdoor time becomes structured learning through exploration.\"},{\"question\":\"What role do children’s gardens play in these programs?\",\"answer\":\"The gardens provide ongoing opportunities to grow vegetables and flowers, observe butterflies and caterpillars, and support frequent hands-on outdoor learning at least once per week.\"},{\"question\":\"What activities occur in the ACES lab at Miami Country Day School?\",\"answer\":\"ACES supports structured and unstructured natural play through weekly animal study and gardening, including close-up encounters, planting and caring for a garden, and hands-on sensory learning like catching caterpillars and tasting greens.\"}]","Turning Our World of Learning Inside Out - Part 1 - Outdoor Learning Experiences | PDF",12]