Members of St. Luke’s Lutheran Preschool staff spent last year researching, dreaming, designing, and planning for the newest addition to The Outdoor Classroom Slavia Village. Now open for just over a year, The Outdoor Classroom Slavia Village has been an integral part of the preschool and kindergarten curriculum for St. Luke’s students.  With its newest addition, Slavia Village Lab, students will deepen their experiences with further areas of interest.

The Outdoor Classroom Slavia Village and the Slavia Village Lab were created by Preschool and Kindergarten Principal, Ileana Barbari, and Director of Curriculum, Jennifer Haddad. Their research took place through the Nature Explore Certification program, which is a collaborative program of Arbor Day Foundation and Dimension Educational Research Foundation. The Outdoor Classroom Slavia Village is a Certified Nature Explore classroom.

Certified Nature Explore Classrooms are dynamic, nature-based, play and learning spaces. They apply research-based, field-tested design principles to create nature-rich outdoor spaces that can be located anywhere: a school, child care center, park, or other community site with a traditional playground. Certified Nature Explore Classrooms enhance the physical environment and add natural beauty to the surrounding area.

The Outdoor Classroom Slavia Village was created to enhance a child’s experience and promote hands-on learning. The outdoor space models the indoor classroom in names for many of the interest areas, thus giving the children a sense of familiarity. Areas of interest focus on different aspects of a child’s education, including: dramatic play, water play, music & movement, forces of nature, and art. To even further enhance a child’s experience, Slavia Lab was created to focus specifically on ‘science’ and to give the students the opportunity to explore it in the same manner that older children do – in a lab – using document cameras, microscopes, wind technology, and sensory play while still maintaining the outdoor experience .

St. Luke’s Preschool hosts over 200 preschool students, from 1 to 5 years old. All teachers and aides, as well as volunteers, are taught curriculum-specific plans based on the different areas of interest. After school programs have also been expanded to include outdoor classroom activities, which give the children an opportunity to utilize the areas as an extension and enhancement of what they are learning in the indoor classroom.

The Outdoor Classroom Slavia Village and Slavia Village Lab would not be possible without the generous donations of sponsors and parents. Each year, St. Luke’s hosts an auction & gala which raised over 100,000 in 2013 and over 110,000 in 2014. Monies raised have gone directly to enhancements and improvements of the school’s facilities.

St. Luke’s Lutheran School believes in giving every child the opportunity to learn, grow, and succeed. The Outdoor Classroom Slavia Village allows children to explore, imagine, and flourish in many additional and wonderful ways. For information about preschool through 8^th grade at St. Luke’s Lutheran School, please email admissions@stlukes-oviedo.org or call (407) 365-3228. St. Luke’s Lutheran is located at 2025 W. SR 426, Oviedo, FL 32765.