NATURE SPACES

By:

At SYVCS we are lucky enough to have our school in the Beautiful Santa Ynez Valley. Our view from the school are mountains and trees. Our school was found 14 years ago with very few buildings and limited resources.

A small garden was placed  on a sloping hill. Over the paset several years with thousands of volunteer hours put in by dedicated parents our gardren has developed in to am amazing outdoor classroom filled with a 14 fruit trees,  butterfly garden erision study zone, council circle, outdoor ampitheatre,  active compost pile, Creativity zone, and a ZEN Garden.

This last school year we have put a large amount of effort and energy into utilizing this amazing space in as many ways as possible. At any point in the day you may find a classroom journaling in the council circle or picking weeds and watering our many fruits and vegetables. During the grape harvest, students are eating handfuls of grapes gown along the perimeter of the garden. Recently a group of students used all natural materials to build a forte. SYVCS parters with Explore Ecology which provides a skilled proffessional to teach our students about the garden.

In Physical Education students are doing Garden Laps which involve some minor obstacles, a balance beam and sprinting up a hill that has railroad ties as stairs. We are constantly looking for more way to utilize this space and have spent a few days this year working as a whole school in the garden or having a full assembly in the ampitheatre.