Teaching and Learning in the Outdoor Classroom

Calling All K-5 Educators in Fairfax County Public Schools!

Are you passionate about helping your students explore, discover, and thrive in the great outdoors? If you’re looking to bring the wonders of nature into your classroom, join us for Teaching and Learning in the Outdoor Classroom (T-LOC), hosted at the Ellanor C. Lawrence Park, Cabell’s Mill, located at 5235 Walney Rd, Centreville, VA 20120. The workshop is on April 29, 2026 from 3:30-6:30pm, s powered by the Blue Swallow Farm Foundation, and is sponsored by the Bank of Clarke and Jacob Ayubi, State Farm.

This inspiring event is designed to help you make the most of your organization’s outdoor space—aligning with both your students’ developmental needs and the Virginia Standards of Learning in an interdisciplinary way.

Here’s what you can look forward to:

The workshop starts with a time to explore interdisciplinary stations for K-5 learners with math, science, language arts, and art resources. Following dinner, you will attend a presentation by Nancy Striniste—author of Nature at Play: Creating Outdoor Spaces that Connect Children with the Natural World.

  • An opportunity to explore a variety of learning stations related to outdoor education

  • A special presentation and Q&A with Nancy Striniste herself
  • Opportunities to collaborate and connect with fellow educators
  • Practical classroom resources to take home
  • Sports bag and raffle prizes
  • A delicious dinner

Don’t miss this chance to spark new ideas, gain practical tools, and grow your professional network—all while deepening your connection to nature-based learning. We can’t wait to see you there!

Thank You To Our Sponsors: The Bank of Clarke and Jacob Ayoubi, State Farm

About Nancy Striniste

Nancy Striniste is the founder and principal designer at EarlySpace, LLC, and has a unique background as both a landscape designer and an early childhood educator. For more than four decades she has worked with schools, childcare centers, municipalities, and organizations to create sustainably designed natural play and learning spaces in the mid-Atlantic and beyond, and to teach teachers and others about how to use the outdoors for teaching and learning.

Ms. Striniste is the author of Nature Play at Home: Creating Outdoor Spaces that Connect Children to the Natural World (Timber Press 2019). She taught for almost a decade at Antioch University New England in their Nature-based Early Childhood Education Graduate Program, served on the Nature Play Work Group of the Maryland Partnership for Children and Nature, and on the Board of NoVA Outside. After more than 20 years living and practicing in Arlington, Virginia, she is has recently relocated to Bensalem, Pennsylvania.

Nancy recently retired as the National Policy Liaison for Green Schoolyards America where she focused on advocacy for the Living Schoolyards Act, a bill before the US Senate.

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