NEW SHARON – Lucas Haines stood with first-graders at the top of a hill Wednesday looking down over the wooden benches set in the ground in amphitheater-design by a former student as an Eagle Scout project.

Haines held an oversized homemade thank you card he and his classmates had signed for the guest of honor Thursday at the Cape Cod Hill School.

“I like it. I like to read outdoors and study insects,” Haines said of the area.

His teacher, Sherry Ames, agreed: It was a perfect place to observe insects and for other outdoor lessons.

When Andrew Mudie, 18, of New Sharon, arrived with his parents, Steve and Terri, most of the pupils and teachers had gathered outside behind the school for the dedication of the outdoor classroom.

They gave Mudie a round of applause as he made his way down to the front.

Mudie, a senior at Mt. Blue High School, had needed a project to earn the rank of Eagle Scout, he said.

A friend had brought him up to the old site of the former outdoor classroom at the school and he nearly missed it. It was overgrown and unrecognizable, he said. He decided he would build a new one to be used for years to come, Mudie said.

It was hard work to make it, he said, because the ground was still frozen in March when he, his parents and fellow Boy Scouts of Troop 586 started to build it.

Mudie, his parents and his 5-year-old sister, Amelia, a pupil at the school, sat on the front bench of the classroom with anxious children looking on.

“Andrew was a student at Cape Cod Hill School a long time ago and we are very lucky he remembered the outdoor classroom was fun because there was one when he was here,” Principal Cheryl Pike said.

Children sang songs, clapped hands and gave Mudie handcrafted thank you notes during the ceremony.

“Thank you, Andrew,” echoed through the fall air.

Pike asked Mudie to follow her up to a tree outside the back door of the school.

A portion of it was wrapped in blue paper with garland holding it together.

Pike handed Mudie scissors to cut the makeshift ribbon and the paper fell away to reveal a face on the tree made from pieces of nature.

“When you come out here, you can think about Andrew watching you appreciating the space he made for you,” Pike said.