Students at my school are creative, curious, concerned and passionate about their surroundings, especially outdoors. I teach 7th grade science in an urban area. Many students do not have the ability to have gardens or flowers at home but since we have been working outside there is a renewed sense of learning and applying what is going on in the classroom.
As future stakeholders on their planet, they want to be advocates for a cleaner, greener environment.
We have plenty of sports fields and such for students to play in, but my students eagerly began exploring the small garden area outside and wandered what they could do to enrich their planet.
Since we have started going outside and working in the small garden, my students daily ask when are we working in the garden again? They plan, work together, become leaders, design and research what they want to see and do with their space. Many are very artistic, and love creating art for me to display in the classroom. Their thought is to extend their creativity to recycle materials for artistic pieces in their garden space. Their excitement is contagious!
My Project
Kids and the outdoors, what a fabulous combination! Nothing like a little hard work with quick results right before your eyes, with just a little bit of water and sunshine, life within a week! This is what a garden can bring to my students!
This excitement has many of my students engaged in wanting to create a beautiful oasis right on their campus.
They plan on making it a work in progress to pass onto future students, as caregivers of “their” space. It will be a place to learn, work, study and enjoy the fruits of their labor. It will be an opportunity to see the results of their ideas across the curriculum and share that scope with others in other schools.
My students see an empty canvas in which to paint beautiful scenery within their campus with a large vegetable garden w/composting, butterfly garden, native plants along with art and a fountain, all made with recyclable material. Their focus is to make an environmental impact and raise awareness for a need of more green space. Because of its location facing a main thoroughfare, they are hoping to visually spread the knowledge!
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