Welcome to Crestwood Elementary School on the west side of Madison, WI, where outdoor learning is happening every day!
Crestwood Elementary is located on Madison's west side at the top of the hill on Old Sauk Rd. If you are visiting our site for the first time or the hundredth time, you probably know how important it is for young students to learn about the natural world that surrounds them. Our Outdoor Education committee, comprised of teachers and parent and community volunteers, is dedicated to providing a rich learning environment in the school's "outdoor classroom" spaces. Our goal is to integrate outdoor learning into the literacy, math, science and arts activities students are engaging in regularly.
Click here to read the Fall 2015 Welcome Walk, a more detailed introduction to our outdoor spaces with some questions for learning and observation along the way!
Studies from prestigious and respected institutions (such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, the Centers for Disease Control and others) confirm with hard data what many of us already know in our hearts and minds: being outdoors and interacting with nature and garden programs is good for kids! Children who engage in outdoor-based learning like the garden programs offered at Crestwood:
Have a question? Want to volunteer? Contact us at: [email protected]
Outdoor Spaces
Crestwood Elementary is located on Madison's west side at the top of the hill on Old Sauk Rd. If you are visiting our site for the first time or the hundredth time, you probably know how important it is for young students to learn about the natural world that surrounds them. Our Outdoor Education committee, comprised of teachers and parent and community volunteers, is dedicated to providing a rich learning environment in the school's "outdoor classroom" spaces. Our goal is to integrate outdoor learning into the literacy, math, science and arts activities students are engaging in regularly.
Click here to read the Fall 2015 Welcome Walk, a more detailed introduction to our outdoor spaces with some questions for learning and observation along the way!
Studies from prestigious and respected institutions (such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, the Centers for Disease Control and others) confirm with hard data what many of us already know in our hearts and minds: being outdoors and interacting with nature and garden programs is good for kids! Children who engage in outdoor-based learning like the garden programs offered at Crestwood:
- Perform significantly better on standardized tests
- Increase core academic performance, particularly low income students
- Are better able to concentrate and perform in the classroom
- Demonstrate improved classroom performance in math, science, reading and social studies
- Have better attendance and are less likely to drop out of school
- Improve creativity, problem-solving, and critical thinking abilities
- Discover increased cooperation, self-discipline, and self-awareness
- Have reduced discipline and classroom management problems
- See a reduction of stress and mental illnesses including depression, ADD and ADHD
- Develop improved immune systems and cardiovascular health and lower rates of obesity
Have a question? Want to volunteer? Contact us at: [email protected]
Outdoor Spaces
We are fortunate to have many outdoor learning spaces right on the school grounds. The Crestwood Forest is an all-school restoration project. As of April 2014, we have received official designation for a school forest! This means we can receive funding and support from the Wisconsin DNR and can apply for grants to assist in further restoration and curriculum development. Starting in 2008, the forest was divided into seven plots, one for each grade level plus one for the staff. The plots are all named after common woodland birds: robin, chickadee, blue jay, nuthatch, woodpecker, cardinal and goldfinch. Classes follow their special plots through the changing seasons, taking inventory of plants and trees, collecting leaves in the fall, planting spring ephemerals, removing non-native invasive plants such as garlic mustard, and learning about the bird their particular plot is named for. In a truly interdisciplinary fashion, Crestwood's art teacher Luke B, is working with students to create tile mosaics for each bird the woodland plots are named after.
Crestwood has several garden plots utilized by the students for a wide variety of outdoor projects. The front of the school features a butterfly garden with butterfly-friendly perennial flowers, a bulb circle where 2nd-graders plant tulips every fall, an herb garden, and vegetable plots (pictured left). The side of the school has a sunflower plot and more vegetables, while the back garden is used by KG and first grade to plant salad every spring, followed by fall crops such as pumpkins and corn.
Students enjoy produce grown in the school gardens as part of the Healthy Snacks Initiative. It's wonderful to see children participate in the entire cycle of planting seeds, nurturing plants, and eating the fruits of their labor!
Students enjoy produce grown in the school gardens as part of the Healthy Snacks Initiative. It's wonderful to see children participate in the entire cycle of planting seeds, nurturing plants, and eating the fruits of their labor!
In Spring 2013, with the benefit of a grant from Lowe's and the expertise from a parent volunteer, Crestwood first graders were fortunate to plant an apple orchard with three varieties of apples - Liberty, Enterprise and Crimson Crisp - on the school grounds.
Just across the road from Crestwood Elementary School is Owen Conservation Park, which includes many acres of restored prairie, woodland and a wetland area. More than a mile of trails go in and around the park. Crestwood students take nature walks throughout the year with their Physical Education classes and take walking field trips with nature guides to learn about the plants, animals and insects that live in Owen Park.
Seasonal Activities
(This section updated periodically!)
(This section updated periodically!)
FALL
SEPTEMBER:
NOVEMBER
SEPTEMBER:
- All students participate in Welcome Walks and harvesting produce
- KGs learn their plot in the woods
- 1st graders begin observations in the apple orchard
- 2nd graders raise monarch caterpillars, walk to Owen park with naturalists for insect observation, begin phenology wheel with an oak tree in the Crestwood forest
- 3rd graders harvest basil and make pesto, walk to Owen park with naturalists for prairie observation, make sit-upons, plant peas indoors for tasting and observation
- 4th graders refine observation skills
- 5th graders lead tours of the school grounds at the Ice Cream Social
- Fall workday to clean up the woods and put the gardens to bed
- KGs collect leaves for pressing, take a field trip to a pumpkin farm
- 1st graders press apple cider, take a field trip to an apple orchard, harvest pumpkins for math projects
- 2nd graders walk to the farmers market, release monarchs, plant tulip bulbs in the circle garden
- 3rd graders visit the MMSD school forest, continue seasonal observations
- 4th graders collect soil samples for testing, harvest root vegetables for Stone Soup at Back-to-School night
- 5th graders help make Stone Soup for Back-to-School night
NOVEMBER
- Art Night is November 6! All students who participate make mosaic tiles for outdoor signs
- The Lantern Walk is in mid-November. All students make lanterns in their art classes, learn special lantern songs in their music classes, and participants in the evening event walk through the woods with Mr. Basseuner, sing the lantern songs with Mrs. McMahon and watch as compostable items are buried in the turkey vulture plot.
WINTER
- woods walks, scavenger hunts, snow studies
SPRING
March
April
May
- Throughout the spring, all students go on woods walks and start seedlings. Many classes take walking field trips to Owen and Kettle Pond conservation parks.
March
- 2nd graders tap maple trees and make maple syrup
April
- On Earth Day, all students assemble to sing Earth Day songs and watch a tree-climbing demonstration
- KGs and 1st graders plant lettuce, spinach and radishes in the back garden
- 2nd graders start cucumber seedlings in mini-greenhouses made with milk jugs
- 3rd graders prune apple trees in the orchard
- 4th and 5th graders celebrate Arbor Day with the Dane County Tree Board (click here to read more)
- 4th and 5th graders collect tree data
May
- Volunteers from Blackhawk Church come to Crestwood for Love Madison workday
- All students plant spring ephemerals in their woods plots and pull garlic mustard
- KGs and 1st graders harvest salad
- 2nd graders plant their cucumber seedlings in the vegetable plots
- 3rd graders plant prairie flowers in the newly establish oak savannah
- 4th graders plant root vegetables for Stone Soup in the fall
- 5th graders plant flowers and work on school beautification
- Planting and harvesting continues as the school year comes to a close!
- Volunteers devise a plan for summer garden maintenance and set up watering systems.