The JBR campus at Muskogee Head Start will be transitioning to an Early Head Start facility, and the staff wants new outdoor classrooms to reflect their new direction.

We began with the design and installation of a small natural climbing project on a base of artificial turf that they had already ordered for an existing playground. Campus staff immediately saw the potential for a grander project and hired Good Fieldwork to design a master plan for the rest of their large outdoor space.

The design includes a central water play and exploration area surrounded by six different learning areas, which includes three general outdoor classrooms, a bike path and nature walk classroom, a gardening and mud kitchen classroom, and a butterfly-attracting seating area for families. All will be suited for infants and toddlers and will feature specific areas to serve the needs of infants in particular. One proposal specifies that the gardening area be open to the community.

Now that the master plan has been approved, the project will move on to design development so that construction of the water play and exploration area classroom can begin. The rest of the spaces will be developed and built as additional funding becomes available.