Vision

Grade 5-6 are very conscious of their environment and love learning about the importance of plants and flowers for pollinators, but also for humans. Learning about indigenous medicinal plants and how nature can feed and heal pushed the class into investigating the use of dandelions to show people that they are not just annoying weeds, but are in fact useful and important for bees and humans. The class decided to plant indigenous edible flowers, make seed bombs and various products from dandelions to sell at local markets. In the Fall and Winter we used wood, shells and sea glass to make Christmas gifts and decorations to show people that we can use nature’s gifts and offer sustainable, recycled gifts instead of plastic decorations. Our vision is for people to start using what is around them and to lower there consumation of non-recycable goods.

Action

Fall/Winter: We made sustainable gifts for people to offer at Christmas from wood, sea glass, dried flowers from our pollinator corridor. We wanted to show others that gifts can be made from what nature provides us and that these objects are recycable. We made and sold wooden bookmarks, picture frames, wreathes and tree decorations at local Christmas markets.
Spring/Summer: We grew medicinal indigenous plants such as milkweed, capucine, calendula, sage, mint, and other edible plants for the pollinator corridor and for selling. We also made seed bombs with indigenous wildflowers and dandelion products – syrup, honey, tea and handcream, whilst ensuring to leave plenty of dandelions for our friends the bees. We will be selling at carrefour Rimouski and Marché Ste Flavie in June hoping to show the population the benefits of using weeds instead of just mowing them. We also made sea glass keyrings.

Reflection & Celebration

Students were happy to learn new knowledge about indigenous plants and their medicinal uses. They can now safely identify many plants that can be consumed and share their knowledge with friends and family. We were able to reach many people in the populations of Metis, Rimouski, Ste Flavie and Ste Marceline through the markets and social media. Our pollinator corridor is also restocked with new plants and we are eco-responsible in our collecting of flowers and plants.