HOUSTON -- An outdoor classroom is helping children learn all types of subjects in a new, fun way, KPRC Local 2, Your Education Station, reported Tuesday.

The lessons are endless at the outdoor eco-classroom at Herod Elementary School, located at 5627 Jason.

The growth of one watermelon can lead to math, science and writing exercises. Younger students can count creatures in the pond.

"I think it hooks kids. It excites them. It's a different location and it's fun for them to do," math teacher Pam Morris said.

Morris loves to bring students from pre-kindergarten through fifth grades to the community garden for hands-on learning. All their senses are stimulated, including taste.

Juliana Dunn, 10, found an edible weed -- purslane.

"I don't know how to describe it," Dunn said.

"Would you put it in a salad?" KPRC Local 2 reporter Kym Alvarado-Booth said.

"I would," Dunn said.

The garden was a form of therapy for a young Hurricane Katrina survivor.

"It was so moving. They were going through difficult stuff. The girl was telling me her grades were bad and she couldn't go trick-or-treating. She said, 'You know, I use to garden with my grandmother in New Orleans. It chokes me up thinking about it,'" said Marguerite Dunn, a parent volunteer.

Herod elementary students work out their feelings and their math problems in the garden. They also check out the bugs and the buds.

Urban Harvest and parent volunteers help with all the labor. But the teachers are planting the seeds of knowledge in the young minds.

Many schools are getting down and dirty with the idea of outdoor learning labs.

Officials said 65 Houston-area schools now have schoolyard habitats.

Within the Houston Independent School District, Herod, Burnet, Kolter and Crockett elementary schools have habitats.