The students at my school come from all different types of backgrounds and socio-economic statuses. We are very fortunate here to have a real mix of cultures represented in our school, which ensures that the school is a vibrant, ever-changing community. Our students also live in a community particularly hard-hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. Our school has not been able to remain open for more than a few days at a time this school year, and most students haven't been back to the building since last March. The students are motivated, talented, and most of all-they love our school garden! During a normal school year, the students help with all aspects of the garden planting seeds, harvesting vegetables, working with our compost, and even feeding our chickens.
My Project
At our school in Gravesend, we are fortunate to have a beautiful half-acre garden maintained in partnership with Edible Schoolyard NYC. Throughout a normal school year, our students come out to the garden three times a month for cooking, gardening, and environmental education lessons.
Any student will tell you that everybody's favorite part of the garden, no matter their age, is our flock of 16 chickens, who provide us eggs to raffle out to students throughout each year.
Pre-K students are introduced to our chickens early on, and they get to observe the chickens growth along with their own over the years.
While students are home this year, we haven't been able to have them interact with our flock very much. Fortunately, one of our fourth grade students had a wonderful idea--to set up a 24/7 live chicken camera called Our Schools Chicken Feed so that students can check in on the chickens whenever they want. This will also give our garden teachers the opportunity to include the chickens in instruction for our remote students, keeping them connected to the garden until they are able to fully return to the school building.
In order to bring this project to life, we need an outdoor webcam that can withstand the more extreme weather days, as well as a new WiFi router system that ensures that our wireless signal will be able to reach the chicken coop!
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mr. Dan and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
