HANDS ON
Learning
St. Gertrude School Engages Students with Outdoor Classroom BY KARY ELLEN BERGER
Imagine an elementary school student sharing their day with, “We played on the playground, swinging, sliding, playing with chickens….” Wait, chickens? St. Gertrude School in Madeira is home to an outdoor classroom – complete with chickens – which is used by all grade levels. “Around 2014, Sister Marie Noelle, a Dominican Sister of St. Cecilia, started the outdoor classroom with the introduction of hatching chickens from eggs and then having the second graders care for the chickens,” said Jeff Hileman, a teacher and the STEM Coordinator at St. Gertrude. “Every year since then, we have hatched new eggs with each second grade class.” “Years later, the students remember how many chickens they’ve hatched, holding and playing with them in the classroom, what their names were, and hatching day where they all wear yellow and make fun chicken hats to wear,” Hileman said.
Around 2014, Sister Marie Noelle started the outdoor classroom with the introduction of hatching chickens from eggs...
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A trail leads to the classroom near a wooded area. The original chicken coop has been renovated over the years, “including our current version that was an Eagle Scout project for a former St. Gertrude School student,” Hileman said. A new “mobile coop” enables chickens to be outside with students on the playground. And St. Gertrude’s hands-on learning offers more than chickens. “[There is] an official monarch butterfly garden planted by Kayrn Dickman, a St. Gertrude School
