“Learning In Nature (At Home)” is a Google Classroom available for anyone in the OPUSD family, run and administered by OPUSD elementary schools’ Garden Teacher Debra Leith and Director of Curriculum and Instruction Jay Greenlinger.

“The idea of the classroom is to encourage students to go outside, safely and with physical distancing of course, and to provide activities that can be done by anyone whilst in nature, on a walk, by a front doorstep, close to home, at home,” Debra Leith wrote.

Normally, this time of year, Leith runs a garden program for the DK-1st grade classes, while the fall and winter seasons are occupied by 4th to 5th graders and 2nd to 3rd graders, respectively. After the quarantine was announced, Leith decided to bring “garden class” to people’s homes.

“I posted on social media to ask if others were interested in nature-based activities, and the resounding answer was yes, so I emailed Dr. Greenlinger and he very kindly got the online classroom set up,” Leith wrote.

Students in the classroom voluntarily participate in activities and tasks administered by Leith involving being outdoors. These tasks range from photography challenges to conversations about the environmentalism movement. The most recent challenge was “Nature Faces,” where students were tasked to create an image of any face using scraps found outdoors.

“There are many ways to enjoy nature and infinite lessons that we can learn from it. In these unprecedented times, it is always good to reinvigorate our minds and bodies with natural things,, using our creativity and using what nature provides us,” Leith wrote.