GA SCHOOLYARD FOREST NETWORK

Georgia Schoolyard Forest Network

The Georgia Schoolyard Forest Network is an EEA initiative that offers professional learning workshops, webinars, lectures, teaching resources, and guidance regarding best practices for greening schoolyards and engaging students in outdoor learning.

Workshops & Symposia

Planting Schoolyard Forests

Find out how your school can join the Georgia Schoolyard Forest Network at the Outdoor Learning Symposium on Tuesday November 4, 2025. A session strand will focus on schoolyard forests. Learn how to plant trees, care for and expand your schoolyard forest, and use trees to engage students in real-world investigations and problem solving.

Learn More
​at the Outdoor Learning Symposium Nov 4th

Webinars

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Schoolyard Forest Design Lectures

Learn about schoolyard forests, from conception and design to tree selection, planting, maintenance, stormwater infrastructure, and mitigating the effects of climate change. This free lecture series is presented by Green Schoolyards America​. ​

REGISTER HERE

Recordings of Past Lectures

Photo by Nancy Sinistre

Projects

CoOL Schoolyard Challenges

​The CoOL Schoolyard Challenges are projects that students can design and carry out on campus, ranging from tree planting and pollinator gardening to wildlife habitat restoration and outdoor investigations. Classes, schools and districts can earn points for participation and recognition for successful outdoor learning. Environmental education providers can propose model projects for students to undertake. 

Learn More & Sign Up

Featured Projects

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Schoolyard Forest Resources . . . 

Greening the Schoolyard Planning Tools

CoOL Schoolyards
​Program Overview

CoOL Schoolyards
Challenges

Teaching with Trees

These "3-dimensional" lessons are aligned to Georgia Standards of Excellence in Science. All are designed to be taught outdoors. 

• Kindergarten: Get to Know a Tree
• 1st Grade:  What a Tree Needs
• 2nd Grade: Changing Nature of Nature
• K, 1st, 2nd Grades: 50 Nifty Trees I Know
• 2nd Grade: Growing Up as a Tree
• 3rd Grade: There’s No Place Like Home (for a Tree)
• 3rdGrade: Too Hot to Handle
• 4th Grade: Nothing Succeeds Like Succession 
• 5th Grade: Which Tree is Which? A Plant Classification Model
• 3,4,5,6,7,HS: Ghost Forest
• 7th, HS Bio & HS Env Sci: Native Tree Planting and Care
• HS EnvSci: What’s the Matter, Tree?
• 2nd, 7th & HS Env Sci:   Butterfly Gardening with Trees
• HS Bio & Env Sci: Tree Invaders
• HS Bio, Env Sci & AP ES: Succession: a Disturbing Turn of Events
• HS Bio & Env Sci: What Good is a Tree?
• HS Bio & Env Sc & AP ES: Fire in the Forest
• HS Env Sci: Street Trees and the Urban Heat Island Effect

Go to CoOL Schoolyards

Go to CREST

Partners

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The ​Council of Outdoor Learning (CoOL) is an EEA initiative that focuses on the design, development, use, sustainability, and longevity of outdoor learning environments at schools, nature centers, and elsewhere; and promotes research-informed practices for effective student and environmental outcomes. CoOL provides a Toolkit for creating outdoor learning spaces, hosts an annual Outdoor Learning Symposium to share resources and strategies for teaching outdoors, curates a collection of outdoor learning activities that are integrated with state standards, supports OL providers, and offers customized professional development workshops and webinars for teachers and non-formal educators.

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