An awesome twist on "Can we have class outside today?"

Remember when you were a kid in school and you'd look out the classroom window and wish you could be "out there" instead of cooped up at your desk?

So you'd plead with your teacher, "Can we please have class outside today?"

For some Lansing-area students, having class outside is a reality.

And this is what $13,781 buys you for an outdoor classroom.

That's what the Capital Region Community Foundation granted to Annie's BIG Nature Lesson, a program that immerses children, teachers and parents in the beauty and wonder of the natural world.

Started in 1999 by Michigan Teacher of the Year Margaret Holtschlag, this program is unrivaled in the experience it gives kids. For one week, a class uses community resources as its classroom — in Lansing, that's at Woldumar Nature Center, a nonprofit environmental education organization situated along the Grand River and boasting more than five miles of trails.

"Kids spend so much time tuning out," Holtschlag said. "To do their homework, they have to tune out the TV in the other room, tune out traffic, tune out other people in the family. Here, we're asking them to tune in."