Vision

The vision was to learn more about the forest by our school, learning more about environmental stewardship and our responsibility to take care of our environment by taking care of a class pet tree. Each class was given a white spruce sapling to name and take care of. Each classroom, and even the office, named their trees in January. The first week of May, the Eco club, along with the City of Oshawa, planted 60 trees in the forested area across from our school.

Action

Through Eco Club at our school and Eco Schools Canada we have planned a project – having ‘trees as classroom pets’. One of the Eco Schools Canada achievements we are working towards is “Tree Planting and Maintenance at School.” We are learning about how “Trees are vital to the health of the entire planet. They provide many benefits to humans, wildlife, and the environment including improving air quality, capturing carbon dioxide, preventing soil erosion, providing shade in the summer, and creating homes for wildlife” (Eco Schools Canada). With our trees, we are promoting the importance of trees as part of our environment and what we can do as a school and community to make a change. We are also making connections to our curriculum and being part of the 2050 project with Earth Rangers Plant a tree project. We will be planting all our 24 trees (White sprue saplings) in our community, in partnership with the Durham region forestry department, the first week of May. The Eco club and the school (grades k-8) use the nearby forest as an extension of our classroom learning, using the natural world around us to inspire inquiry and discovery. When walking in the forest, we noticed some of the trees had fallen down, and some had died, our students in the Eco club wondered if we could plant some trees to replace the fallen ones. We talked together, and I found another school that had used evergreen trees as class pets. To demonstrate responsibility for taking care of a living as well as making connections to the important role trees and plants have in our community, this small gesture of classroom trees by naming them and having students be responsible to water and soon plant them has helped many of the different grades make connections between personal experiences and curriculum learning goals.

Reflection & Celebration

This was an amazing experience not only for the students and school, but the residents in our school’s area will get to enjoy our trees for years to come. This was a new project for our school and me, we have learned so much about the environment, trees, and plants, and the impact just one more tree makes in our community.