{"id":489732,"date":"2026-10-08T23:24:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T23:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/489732\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T23:24:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T23:24:08","slug":"outdoor-creative-learning-space-celebrated-at-wilmington-early-education-center-daily-breeze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/489732\/","title":{"rendered":"Outdoor creative learning space celebrated at Wilmington early education center \u2013 Daily Breeze"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"LAUSD Board Member Tanya Ortiz Franklin presents an award to...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.dailybreeze.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/TDB-L-SCHOOL-GARDEN-1009-7.jpg?w=620\"  bad-src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>LAUSD Board Member Tanya Ortiz Franklin presents an award to Principal Raquel Sheppard during opening ceremonies for the new Nature Explore outdoor classroom at Hawaiian Avenue Early Education Center in Wilmington as part of a state effort to trade hot pavement for green space on Thursday October 8, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"LAUSD Superintendent Andr\u00c3\u00a9s Chait helps cut the ribbon during opening...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.dailybreeze.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/TDB-L-SCHOOL-GARDEN-1009-13.jpg?w=620\"  bad-src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>LAUSD Superintendent Andr\u00e9s Chait helps cut the ribbon during opening ceremonies for the new Nature Explore outdoor classroom, built for exploration and creativity from 15,000 square feet of asphalt, at Hawaiian Avenue Early Education Center in Wilmington as part of a state effort to trade hot pavement for green space on Thursday October 8, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Students perform a lion dance during opening ceremonies for the...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.dailybreeze.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/TDB-L-SCHOOL-GARDEN-1009-11.jpg?w=620\"  bad-src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Students perform a lion dance during opening ceremonies for the new Nature Explore outdoor classroom at Hawaiian Avenue Early Education Center in Wilmington as part of a state effort to trade hot pavement for green space on Thursday October 8, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Flowers and vegetables thrive in the planters at the new...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.dailybreeze.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/TDB-L-SCHOOL-GARDEN-1009-1.jpg?w=620\"  bad-src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Flowers and vegetables thrive in the planters at the new Nature Explore outdoor classroom at Hawaiian Avenue Early Education Center in Wilmington, opened as part of a state effort to trade hot pavement for green space, on Thursday October 8, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Flowers and vegetables thrive in the planters at the new...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.dailybreeze.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/TDB-L-SCHOOL-GARDEN-1009-2.jpg?w=620\"  bad-src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Flowers and vegetables thrive in the planters at the new Nature Explore outdoor classroom at Hawaiian Avenue Early Education Center in Wilmington, opened as part of a state effort to trade hot pavement for green space, on Thursday October 8, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Parents attend the official opening of the new Nature Explore...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.dailybreeze.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/TDB-L-SCHOOL-GARDEN-1009-4.jpg?w=620\"  bad-src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Parents attend the official opening of the new Nature Explore outdoor classroom, built for exploration and creativity from 15,000 square feet of asphalt, at Hawaiian Avenue Early Education Center in Wilmington as part of a state effort to trade hot pavement for green space on Thursday October 8, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Students dancers perform during opening ceremonies for the new Nature...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.dailybreeze.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/TDB-L-SCHOOL-GARDEN-1009-15.jpg?w=620\"  bad-src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Students dancers perform during opening ceremonies for the new Nature Explore outdoor classroom at Hawaiian Avenue Early Education Center in Wilmington as part of a state effort to trade hot pavement for green space on Thursday October 8, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Students perform a lion dance during opening ceremonies for the...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.dailybreeze.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/TDB-L-SCHOOL-GARDEN-1009-12.jpg?w=620\"  bad-src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Students perform a lion dance during opening ceremonies for the new Nature Explore outdoor classroom at Hawaiian Avenue Early Education Center in Wilmington as part of a state effort to trade hot pavement for green space on Thursday October 8, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"LAUSD Board Member Tanya Ortiz Franklin speaks during opening ceremonies...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.dailybreeze.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/TDB-L-SCHOOL-GARDEN-1009-6.jpg?w=620\"  bad-src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>LAUSD Board Member Tanya Ortiz Franklin speaks during opening ceremonies for the new Nature Explore outdoor classroom at Hawaiian Avenue Early Education Center in Wilmington as part of a state effort to trade hot pavement for green space on Thursday October 8, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Students perform a lion dance during opening ceremonies for the...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.dailybreeze.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/TDB-L-SCHOOL-GARDEN-1009-10-1.jpg?w=620\"  bad-src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Students perform a lion dance during opening ceremonies for the new Nature Explore outdoor classroom at Hawaiian Avenue Early Education Center in Wilmington as part of a state effort to trade hot pavement for green space on Thursday October 8, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Students perform a lion dance during opening ceremonies for the...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.dailybreeze.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/TDB-L-SCHOOL-GARDEN-1009-9.jpg?w=620\"  bad-src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Students perform a lion dance during opening ceremonies for the new Nature Explore outdoor classroom at Hawaiian Avenue Early Education Center in Wilmington as part of a state effort to trade hot pavement for green space on Thursday October 8, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Students dancers perform during opening ceremonies for the new Nature...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.dailybreeze.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/TDB-L-SCHOOL-GARDEN-1009-14.jpg?w=620\"  bad-src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Students dancers perform during opening ceremonies for the new Nature Explore outdoor classroom at Hawaiian Avenue Early Education Center in Wilmington as part of a state effort to trade hot pavement for green space on Thursday October 8, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"LAUSD Superintendent Andr\u00c3\u00a9s Chait speaks during opening ceremonies for the...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.dailybreeze.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/TDB-L-SCHOOL-GARDEN-1009-5.jpg?w=620\"  bad-src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>LAUSD Superintendent Andr\u00e9s Chait speaks during opening ceremonies for the new Nature Explore outdoor classroom at Hawaiian Avenue Early Education Center in Wilmington as part of a state effort to trade hot pavement for green space on Thursday October 8, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"LAUSD Superintendent Andr\u00c3\u00a9s Chait and Board Member Tanya Ortiz Franklin...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.dailybreeze.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/TDB-L-SCHOOL-GARDEN-1009-3.jpg?w=620\"  bad-src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>LAUSD Superintendent Andr\u00e9s Chait and Board Member Tanya Ortiz Franklin attend the opening ceremony for the new Nature Explore outdoor classroom at Hawaiian Avenue Early Education Center in Wilmington as part of a state effort to trade hot pavement for green space on Thursday October 8, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n<p>Show Caption<\/p>\n<p>1 of 14<\/p>\n<p>LAUSD Board Member Tanya Ortiz Franklin presents an award to Principal Raquel Sheppard during opening ceremonies for the new Nature Explore outdoor classroom at Hawaiian Avenue Early Education Center in Wilmington as part of a state effort to trade hot pavement for green space on Thursday October 8, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#\" class=\"icon-enlarge mng-gallery-fullscreen-expand\" aria-label=\"Expand fullscreen slideshow\">Expand<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Wilmington celebrated a new natural outdoor space at the Hawaiian Avenue Early Education Center on Thursday, Oct. 8.<\/p>\n<p>The 15,000 square-foot space replaced asphalt and will provide early education students with an outdoor classroom.<\/p>\n<p>Until September, the young children played on more than 15,000 square feet of asphalt.<\/p>\n<p>Now, they are able to dig in a garden, and build, climb, make art and learn in nature, according to a description provided by Los Angeles Unified School District officials.<\/p>\n<p>The new Nature Explore outdoor classrooms hold nearly 10 hands-on learning areas, each built for exploration and creativity.<\/p>\n<p>The roughly $6 million project \u2014 which also delivered major campus upgrades \u2014 received about $1 million from CAL FIRE\u2019s Green Schoolyards Program, part of a state effort to trade hot pavement for green space.<\/p>\n<p>Without the asphalt, officials said in a written statement, the school day \u201clooks very different, giving students the freedom to explore their surroundings and build a lifelong connection to the natural world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Attending the celebration on Thursday were LAUSD officials, board member Tanya Ortiz Franklin and school principal Raquel Sheppard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAUSD Board Member Tanya Ortiz Franklin presents an award to Principal Raquel Sheppard during opening ceremonies for the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[7,3172,17248,23,131,133,132,47,137,100,17411],"class_list":["post-489732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-california","tag-harbor-area","tag-lausd","tag-local-news","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-county","tag-news","tag-wilmington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}