Our Campus

An Urban Campus

Our campus is situated in an established residential neighborhood in Central Berkeley. Our location allows easy access to the many benefits the East Bay has to offer. Students frequently take walking field trips to the public library, local parks, the UC Berkeley campus, local theater venues, and more. 

Outdoor  Spaces for Learning and Play

Multiple outdoor spaces provide ample opportunity for active play and interactive learning. Children of all grades utilize the space together and intermingle for play. Classrooms are large and airy, and offer easy access to outdoor spaces. In addition to having PE three times a week, children have recess at least twice a day allowing plenty of time for active play.

Nestled alongside our kindergarten and first grade classrooms, our Side Yard houses our four chickens, who are cared for by the students, as well as planter boxes and beds filled with strawberries and a butterfly habitat garden for study. 

The Big Yard provides space for PE as well as for full-court basketball, four square, and other team games. Wednesdays we break out the roller skates, helmets, and knee and elbow pads for half an hour of fun on wheels. 

The Play Yard, with its large sandbox, swings, redwood trees, and play structure, offers a play space that invites creativity, cooperative play and sharing. 

Our Outdoor Classroom is a shaded seating area attached to the Big Yard and provides a break-out space for outdoor learning projects requiring tables and protection from the sun.  During outdoor events, tables are removed and this space doubles as a stage.

A Campus Habitat

We are proud to be a certified Backyard Habitat. We have filled our planting boxes with native flowers and trees to provide food, shelter, and nesting places for local wildlife. Mature trees like elderberry, redwood, and coastal live oak provide shade and attract many varieties of birds for our third grade AIR students to observe in the course of their “What makes a bird, a bird?” project. Native shrubs and flowers such as yarrow, fennel, manzanita, and poppies provide food for local bees and butterflies throughout their lifecycle. Each year, our fourth grade WATER students explore ways to enhance our habitat in their “Habitat as Home” project. All our landscaping is water-wise in keeping with our status as a certified Green school.