The halls at Lincoln Elementary were eerily quiet Thursday. But out at the playground was a different story. It's part of the "No Child Left Inside Day" put on by the Catamount Institute.

"They've made rockets today. They are touching trees from the Haymen Fire, they got to sit in the police car. They are doing just a lot of hands on, touch it, feel it," says Richelle Gittens, a teacher at Lincoln elementary school. That's because students got a new spin on learning Thursday.

"They are learning a lot about science and nature through doing it, which is so important at this age," says Tracy Jackson of the Catamount Institute.
Catamount Institute is hosting the "No Child Left Inside Day" at Lincoln, so students can learn to appreciate outdoor learning adventures.
And they did.

"It's phenomenal. Because if you listen to the words of the kids, you can't hear any complaining at our school today, which is a wonderful thing as a teacher, which is a blast," says Gittens. Through songs and playing, the students learned about nature, like Colorado's most destructive fire. "That it lasted for 20 days and that it burned 138,000 acres of land," says Conner Mather, a student at Lincoln Elementary.

This is the second year that Catamount is putting on this program and it's based on a book called "Last Child in the Woods."

"They are laughing, they are playing, they don't know they are learning... but they are," says Jackson.