Vision

Our vision for Canada is… biodiverse and sustainable, with community engagement and inclusion. At our elementary school in Toronto, Perth Ave PS, grade 5 and 6 students led an initiative to plant native pollinator species on our school grounds. We want to provide a variety of flowering plants to the urban biodiversity in our community. We wanted to engage many other grades and community members as well to ensure the project would be sustainable, and the gardens and plants be maintained and enjoyed indefinitely.

Action

Our school ordered five large stock tanks to be used as planters, and through the grant and community donations, we were able to fill all of them with a variety of plants. The grade 5/6 class researched, planned and proposed the garden design for two of the tanks, to be pollinator gardens, while the other classes planted vegetables. The students were ambassadors, negotiators, project leaders, and gardeners throughout this entire process.

Reflection & Celebration

Time management was a challenge in this project, but we found may ways to integrate out science and math learning in the process. Initially, student engagement was less than I anticipated when I announced the project, but, once the students began planning and promoting their own proposals for the garden designs, they were very much invested, and it was a pleasure to be learning as much as possible while outdoors in the spring months of the school year.

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