Our Outdoor Classroom
Creating an outdoor classroom in our DeWitt Nature Center has been a labor of love. Our classroom is a unique natural habitat located right outside our school doors and is designed for education, enjoyment, and enrichment.
DeWitt Middle School students have worked hard to enhance and preserve it for future generations by placing donated woodchips (delivered and provided by the City of DeWitt) on the trails, lining the trails with fallen logs from trees in the woodlot, raking fallen leaves off paths to preserve the life of the woodchips, creating seats for an outdoor classroom from fallen logs, placing drainage tubes under pathways to keep the trails dry and accessible to our community, picking up trash from the trails, and emptying the trash can at the entrance of the woodlot.
Walking in our woodlot and connecting with nature has many health benefits. Forest therapy has proven to decrease anxiety, improve focus, boost creativity, lower blood pressure, relieve depression, and make you feel more alive. This practice was first inspired by the Japanese practice of Shinrin-yoku (sometimes referenced as "Forest Bathing").
Introduction to Forest Therapy and Shinrin Yoku (4:05): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wixyvQMCFj4
Creating an outdoor classroom in our DeWitt Nature Center has been a labor of love. Our classroom is a unique natural habitat located right outside our school doors and is designed for education, enjoyment, and enrichment.
DeWitt Middle School students have worked hard to enhance and preserve it for future generations by placing donated woodchips (delivered and provided by the City of DeWitt) on the trails, lining the trails with fallen logs from trees in the woodlot, raking fallen leaves off paths to preserve the life of the woodchips, creating seats for an outdoor classroom from fallen logs, placing drainage tubes under pathways to keep the trails dry and accessible to our community, picking up trash from the trails, and emptying the trash can at the entrance of the woodlot.
Walking in our woodlot and connecting with nature has many health benefits. Forest therapy has proven to decrease anxiety, improve focus, boost creativity, lower blood pressure, relieve depression, and make you feel more alive. This practice was first inspired by the Japanese practice of Shinrin-yoku (sometimes referenced as "Forest Bathing").
Introduction to Forest Therapy and Shinrin Yoku (4:05): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wixyvQMCFj4