Gilbert H Hood Middle School is proud to announce the near completion of our new Outdoor Learning Classroom, the "Husky Habitat." Although there is still much to do, we are happy with the progress that has been made over the course of this past Spring and Summer, and we are excited to open the area for classroom use during the 2016-2017 school year.

Students worked very hard during WIN this past Spring to create a classroom area for students to complete their work outside during the school year. Students worked hard sanding tables, leveling the surface area, installing a landscape timber boundary, as well as spreading 10 yards of playground chips within the classroom area. Students also created a small rock wall to help prevent erosion of the mulch and soil near our three small trees. Our maintenance staff did a great job painting the cement wall and making it look brand new.

Over this past summer, the wooden arbor (2016 Class Gift) was put together and added to the outdoor area. Nicholas Burke (current student) has been working hard on his Eagle Scout Project which will benefit the Husky Habitat come this Fall. Nick has been fundraising and building the following items for our Outdoor Classroom: wooden bench with planter boxes at each end; 2 small flower boxes; 2 Adirondack chairs; and two 3' x 6' raised planter beds. Nick has been busy working on this project and we are very excited to add his pieces to the Husky Habitat sometime in September.

As many of you know, we ran an "Adopt a Brick" fundraiser throughout the 2015-2016 school year. We would like to thank Puzzo Landscaping for a beautiful job done on the installation of the 15' x 15' brick patio and walkways over the summer. If you purchased a brick, please take some time and come take a look at the patio and find your brick. A big thank you to everyone that participated in the 'adopt a brick' fundraiser. It looks fantastic!

Although the "Husky Habitat" is nearly finished, we are still working to spruce it up a bit. Our goal over the course of the next year is to improve the grass areas around the patio and classroom area as well as better organize and design the flower section. We are also hoping to add items such as: bird baths, bird houses, and bird feeders. If anyone has anything that they would like to donate to the classroom area, please do not hesitate to contact us at any time.

7th-Grade Science Teachers:

~Ms. Paradis (dparadis@sau10.org)

~Mrs. Smith (ssmith@sau10.org)