At the beginning of each school year, set the dates for at least one Outdoor Classroom (OC) Work Day per semester on a school day (Monday – Friday) so that all students will have the opportunity to help with maintenance of your outdoor classroom. Use the tips below to make your day as efficient and successful as possible.

• When you schedule a clean up day, check to see what other activities such as field trips, festivals or sporting events are scheduled that could greatly impact the ability of people to volunteer.
• Schedule a “rain date” for the following day in case of inclement weather.
• Share the OC Work Day dates with your school staff, parents and community volunteers as soon as the date(s) are set.
• Utilize the free OC Work Day planning materials including the Clean Up Day Checklist and example Volunteer/Donor Form to help you plan your event.
• Create a list of the tasks you want to complete that day and prioritize them so that you get the most important ones done first.
• Do not try to do too much all at once—have defined tasks that can be completed in a given amount of time.
• Recruit reliable volunteers to be in charge of specific tasks so the day will run more smoothly and to keep you from running from task to task.
• Make sure you communicate exactly what tools you will provide and what the volunteers need to bring with them to help eliminate wasted time due to not having the right tools and materials on hand.
• When putting together a clean up schedule for a large project that requires a full day, have people sign-up for exact time slots to help you gauge how many volunteers you will have during each stage of the project.
• Be flexible and offer one-hour time slots for your volunteers.
• Schedule some outdoor classroom clean ups on Saturdays for parents and community volunteers who are unable to take time off during the work week. Make Weekend Work Days Fun using the tips below!
  • Use themes to make working in the outdoor classroom feel more like a festival than a chore.
  • Provide cold drinks and tasty snacks.
  • Provide a shady area for volunteers to rest.
  • Hold contests to see who can pull the most weeds.
  • Invite volunteers and students to paint designs on garden structures.
  • Vary the activities for volunteers, so that people do not have to pull weeds every time they volunteer.
  • Ask older students or volunteers to do craft projects or play games that relate to the outdoor classroom with younger children so little ones do not feel excluded and they are kept busy allowing parents to work.
  • Rename common tasks to give them more meaning. For example, rather than focusing on “pulling weeds,” call it “collecting a ‘food harvest’ for the earthworms in your compost bin.”
• Try to keep weekend clean up days limited to the morning hours so that your volunteers do not have to give up a whole day of their weekend.
• Invite community groups such as local churches to assist with clean up days and special projects.