Chipmunk Island Forest is a small, green place tucked away in back of Southport Central School. It's a hidden world in plain sight of the back of the building. A trail leads to the Outdoor Classroom, complete with wooden benches and a protected white board, all made by Boothbay Region High School student Noah Sherburne for an Eagle Scout project. The landscape is woodsy and wet. Moss hummocks rise above a spring pond and mud rules the earth. It is the perfect place for kids to pretend, create and learn.

When I arrived on Friday afternoon, April 28, the students in Pre-K and kindergarten teacher Katie Madden's class were chafing to go to the island. Haiden Blackman, Ford Harris, Mabel Kaler, McKinlee Madden, Jessie Ullo and Kayla Watts were dressed in waterproof protective red suits and rubber boots. They hopped from foot to foot and when they were finally shepherded outside, they scattered. Four of them headed for the woods while two stopped to show Boothbay Region Land Trust Environmental Educator Tracey Hall the place where a day or two ago, they saw a woodpecker.

The first part of Outdoor Classroom is more like a traditional recess period held in the coolest place in the world. There's the sink station with pots and pans that can be filled with mud, water, leaves and sticks to make a soup. Little trails lead to the islands in the water. It looks like something out of “Peter Pan,” a place where only children can go. Several students hopped from island to island, deep into their own world. The word “pretend” was heard a lot.

Hall, Katie Madden and Southport Central Administrative Assistant and Technology Coordinator Eileen Higgins watched the students closely. Higgins told me she joins the outside class as much as she can because it's so much fun.

“It's different every season,” Madden said. In the winter, the kids wade through ice and snow. Sometimes, they take a path past Chipmunk Island Forest to photographer Robert Mitchell's field, where they ski.

At one point, Ford became stuck in the mud when he slid off one of the slippery islands. He called for help. “We're coming, Ford!” several people yelled. In the middle of the rescue, frog eggs were discovered.

Mabel and Kayla made root beer in two big pots. “If you make it, people will come,” Kayla said.

The Outdoor Classroom lesson for the day centered around the concepts of pushing and pulling. Students gathered around Madden, who held an armful of cute stuffed animals, all of which needed to be rescued, she told her students. They needed to be returned to the trees. She gave them tools, a basket to hold their animal, bungee cords and rope. The students placed the animals in their baskets, found a tree branch and tried as best they could (sometimes with help – it is a long way up to some of the branches). Madden, Hall and Higgins handed out more bungee cords, which gave students the option to pull the cords along the branch to inch their basket higher. Every animal was rescued.

After the lesson, the students were going to gather forest materials appropriate for brewing tea. At the end of each Outdoor Classroom, Hall conducts a tea ceremony before they all go back inside.

Time prevented me from staying for tea. I wandered up the little trail toward the parking lot and my car, reluctance pulling me backward even as I pushed myself forward. It was hard to leave Chipmunk Island Forest. I hope I can go back.