The Lincoln Cooperative preschool (LCP) is one of the oldest continuously run Parent Cooperative, non-profit preschools in Vermont, serving a 3, 4, and 5 years old mixed ages group. The school was built by, and has been owned, operated, and maintained by the parents of currently enrolled students for 41 years. I have been employed by the cooperative as Director and licensed Lead Teacher for 24 years, working at the preschool is my life’s passion and work, which I hope to continue for many years. This year is going to be unique in my career, we are going to step outdoors and stay there!

 
 
    One hundred years from now there may be pictures of OUR children learning in outdoor classrooms, just as there are from the 1918 pandemic. Vermont is leading the way on practicing safe strategies for minimizing transmission of Covid19 in our communities. All over the state, a variety of outdoor classrooms are being erected. The LCP is developing a fully outdoor program for this fall and beyond. We have put up a 13’ x20’ all weather tent, have built outdoor sinks, stocked up on child-safe disinfectant and sanitizer AND we are building a permanent 20’ x25’ (large!) covered outdoor classroom.  Having a covered outdoor classroom has long been a goal/dream for me as a teacher but not something I expected to ever have, or to need this much.

     Interacting outdoors is one of the four main safety guidelines for controlling the spread of Covid19, along with masks, handwashing, and physical distancing. Having our children spread out on the playground, and remaining outdoors in our tent and outdoor classroom will allow us the safest opportunity to have fully in person learning. The large covered outdoor spaces will allow us to set up all the materials from inside of our school outdoors, on a rotating basis, and create as close to a normal program out in the fresh air. We will be open 5 days a week, 15 children per day, with 25 children enrolled, full enrollment for us. We will have heaters in the spaces when it starts to get chilly and use our fire pit.

    We transitioned to online preschool for the remainder of the school year when schools closed in March. We figured out the technology and what worked for our children. We had Zoom bedtime stories, small group play, talk, and drawing, Zooms, and uploaded teacher created videos. It was heartwarming and heart breaking, maintained some amount of connection, and was nothing like being in school in person. We are also continuing to offer fully online learning this school year for a few families that need that and can transition to that, and then back to in person, for everyone if any closure periods do happen again.

       Preschool children are not sitting quietly at desks. A LCP day is a completely interactive, highly physical, immersive, hands on experience. The quality of our relationships, the non-stop sharing of ideas “You be the doctor who fixes my leg that got broken when I fell off the unicorn”, the imaginary play which is the work of young children, and most of all the unrelenting joy and laughter that fills each day, makes this a magical place to teach and be with young children. Our beautiful location in the mountains, big outdoor play space, perfect sledding hill, cozy wooded fire pit, our sweet little schoolhouse, and the local community support for 41 years has created an idyllic little world for children.

      You might be thinking….but outdoors in Vermont? The LCP has been increasing outdoor based learning for years now. We only ate lunch indoors 4 times from August to Thanksgiving break last year. We eat lunch, and stay out to play, in the snow if snowsuits are dry, it’s sunny and not windy. We have been spending half of our 7.5 hour day outdoors already. We have developed a curriculum around growing plants, gardening, harvesting, and cooking from our preschool gardens. We teach children all about being scientists, mathematicians, and artists in the natural world through hands on activities and explorations. Going outside used to be thought of as a break time to run freely, learn to swing, and dig in the sand. Over the years, we have learned that everything we do inside can be done outside. The same complex play will happen outdoors if children are used to being outside for long periods. Not having a covered outdoor space for shade and rain has been the biggest limiting factor in bringing more of our material outside for use.

     After exploring various options which didn’t work out, like putting a roof over our deck, we found out a local building crew who are experienced with building outdoor classrooms would and could build us an outdoor classroom BEFORE school starts. They are delaying established jobs to get this done. They have already dug the holes and poured the footings for our structure. We solicited pledges of support prior to making the decision to build which showed us the support to go ahead was there and the preschool had some funds to put towards the project as well. If we fully meet our fundraising goal we will have an outdoor classroom with a wooden floor and low side walls which can be set up close to a traditional preschool classroom. It will be a completely flexibly used space, think tricycles and strider bikes in January….If we are short we will have a beautiful covered structure with a woodchip floor and plans to put in the wooden floor when we can.

    We appreciate any, and all, support to make an outdoor preschool classroom where children can continue their learning in person, or as my Dad calls it, “Ice Station Preschool”, a reality and a model for children’s learning.

Please help us out by sharing this fundraising page widely.

Sincerely,

Kerry Malloy  

teacher