Classroom doors open out onto our Sensory Garden Outdoor Classroom. Students can access the area independently in their wheelchairs and complete the circle eight, or veer off to the swing area, which has five molded plastic seats with safety belts and a wheelchair platform.

There are raised switches for students to press, which turn on water features that jump across the pathway, or bubble up and run down the sides of an urn, or create a gentle mist that drifts down from the open roof of the pergola. In the warm weather, the splash pad also has a jetting fountain; a drive-though, tall, spraying horseshoe; and a small, gently flowing umbrella, which are also activated by switches, and make for summer fun.

Tall grasses create a waving serpentine walkway. Students feel the gently waving plumes as they travel through path. Vegetables are grown in a raised planter that wheelchairs can get up close to and extend underneath. Students plant, weed, water and harvest the produce. The fruit patch has strawberry and blueberry bushes, and there is an entire area filled with scents of lavender, lemon balm, sage.

Weeping cherry trees grace an open grassy area. A magnolia tree watches over the raised rock wall and gradual slope. In the very center of the Garden is a silver ball, which spins and provides the seated rider with a 360 degree view of the garden. Three open beamed pergolas form the support for flowering vines, which provide shade for outdoor tabletop activities.

Our Garden was designed to create spaces that would provide opportunity for the practice of student learning objectives, which are already occurring within the school building. It is also place of peace and beauty. Please come and visit!