Belvedere Elementary School has received funding during the academic year to aid them in creating outdoor classrooms.

The school received a $2,500 grant from the Dominion Foundation based on their efforts to go green. Pat Gualtieri, librarian at the school, said the grant supported the development of outdoor classrooms for hands-on math and science learning. She said the grant also helped fund the clean up and marking of the “Bulldog Paw Way,” a trail linking the school to the adjacent county park at the corner of Sleepy Hollow Road and Columbia Pike.

Each grade level planted and raised crops that were eventually harvested and some shared with the Arlington Food Assistance Center, Gualtieri said.

Additional funding from the Fairfax County Public Schools Department of Facilities and Transportation Services Schoolyard Stewardship Mini-grant (SSMG) enabled the Belvedere community to transform the library courtyard into another outdoor classroom, complete with wildlife habitat gardens, a decomposition garden and a soon-to-be completed rock identification wall.

The school is aiming to be recognized nationally as an “Eco School.”