Vision

As a school and class community we enjoy giving back to the earth, helping with climate issues in an age appropriate manner and enjoy community walks to learn more about nature in our community. We noticed lots of early blooming plants in gardens with bees buzzing around, squirrels coming out of hibernation and caterpillars crawling around. We decided it would be a great idea to make a pollinator garden outside of our classroom windows so we could observe and document what the bees do.

Action

The students asked the older students in the school to remove the old compost bins outside our windows that are no longer in use as they built bigger new ones in the fall. As a class we looked at the space, decided on a size and design we thought would be appropriate for the space and what kinds of plants we could put in the garden. We then with the help of our learning buddies raked the lawn and prepared it for the soil we were having delivered by a local company along with a 16ft beam to contain the soil. The students were then tasked with shoveling the soil into the garden bed we made into a pollinator sensory garden as well as spread it out on the spot we wanted to make the new garden. This took them several days and a lot of hard work but they felt very accomplished after they completed it. When the dirt settled after a evening of rain one educator in the room went to a local nursery and hosted a google meet with the class. The students were then taken through the nursery and learned about all kinds of plants, their needs, what they attract and what they need to survive. The students knew we were focusing on plants that required partial shade and must attract bees and butterflies since it is a pollinator garden we built. They were excited to find the perfect plants for this and to get them into the garden. One student said the plants that will grow tall should go in the back and the others should go in the front. The students were responsible for digging the soil and then placing the plants in the holes. The students also helped to split other plants from gardens at the school to add to ours and educators brought plants from their homes. After the plants were planted our area had a massive storm knocking out the power for several days. Some students were worried about our gardens through the storm as they had lots of damage at their houses and brought their parents to the school on the weekend to check on the gardens. All of our gardens were unharmed during the storm. Our last touch for the garden was adding mulch to help keep the moisture in the garden. The students are quite happy with the new garden and are very proud to show off their hard work!

Reflection & Celebration

We are a catholic school community so our students would like to celebrate our new gardens with their parents and the priest from our local parish which we share a parking lot with. We are planning a Garden Celebration in June to celebrate all of our students’ hard work and to bless the garden and the animals we hope to attract to the area.