Help Us Build a Home for Outdoor Learning, Discovery & Connection

Imagine a place where our youngest students can step outside the traditional classroom to learn by exploring, observing, creating, and discovering the world around them.

The Bresnahan Living Classroom is a dedicated outdoor experiential learning program designed specifically for students in grades K–3. By combining thoughtful infrastructure with a nature-based curriculum, the Living Classroom will nurture environmental stewardship, scientific curiosity, creativity, and social-emotional growth during these important early years.

The focus on outdoor learning is intentional. Research shows the tremendous benefits of outdoor experiences on healthy student development. And when students learn about the habitats and natural world right in their own community, they develop a deeper understanding of and appreciation for the environment around them.

The Living Classroom will also create an exciting connection between our youngest learners and Newburyport High School’s Environmental Pathway. Since 2024, NHS has been developing this pathway to give high school students the opportunity to graduate with a focus on environmental sciences and hands-on experiences in the field. The Living Classroom will create opportunities for Environmental Pathway students to share their knowledge, skills, and passion for the environment with our K–3 students, building connections across generations of learners.

At the heart of the Living Classroom will be a yurt serving as a welcoming home base that bridges the indoors and outdoors. It will provide a weather-protected gathering space that serves as the basecamp from which students will explore outdoors as they conduct experiments, observe nature, create art, read, collaborate, and learn.

But the Living Classroom is about more than environmental education. Our youngest students increasingly need opportunities to practice collaborating, navigating obstacles, and persevering through challenges. Through positive, engaging, hands-on experiences in the natural world, the Living Classroom will help children build these skills while developing confidence, curiosity, and a sense of connection to their community.

We’re so close to making this vision a reality.

The PTO has already committed significant funds to this project, thanks in large part to the incredible support of families, local businesses, and community members who have supported PTO fundraising over the years. Now, we need to raise the final $35,000 to complete the yurt.

We’re asking our community to help us cross the finish line.

Whether you make a donation, ask your employer about a company match, share this campaign with a friend, or help spread the word, every contribution brings us closer to creating this extraordinary learning space for our children.

Help us build more than a yurt.

Help us build a place where a child can discover a fascination with science, develop a lifelong connection to nature, learn to work together, persevere through challenges, and experience the simple joy of learning outside.

Together, we can build a home for the Living Classroom for our students today and for generations of Newburyport learners to come.

Bres Living Classroom Yurt

Help Us Build a Home for Outdoor Learning, Discovery & Connection