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We have 18 planters along three walls of the middle school. Each one is slightly smaller than one square meter. The planters looked rather derelict. The middle school principal asked for volunteers to start caring for the planters, including planting, watering and weeding. A teacher thought of inviting various classrooms and groups within the school community to each formally adopt a planter. And the idea evolved into a "tree nursery". Along with herbs and annual and perennial flowers, each planter could include a small tree in the center. Each planter could become a mini tree nursery. Each adopter can care for the tree for the next 1-2 years, at which point it will be donated or auctioned off for a worthy cause/forest.
Activiteit/evenement
ASH Tree Nursery
- Welke tips wil je andere Eco-teams geven bij het organiseren van een activiteit/evenement?: This kind of tree can give rise to almost unlimited curricular connections. Students can storytell about the tree and the planter in their language classes. Science classes can discuss aspects like life cycle and nutrients. Math classes can collect data about growth of the tree and learn ways to communicate about the data and demonstrate their understanding of the data. Art teachers can also involve their classes.
- Onderwijstype: Basisonderwijs
- Waarom zijn jullie hier trots op?: Seasonal and native plants have been planted in the planters twice before, as once-off activities, without any formal plans in place to water and weed the planters afterward. As a result, the planters will look nice for a month or two, but then go to seed. This time, responsbility for maintaining each planter was embedded into the project. In this way, there can be a more sustained impact on the playground. Additionally, this project connected with many people, with not only student groups adopting planters, but also office staff. And we have many students who have found a new love - weeding during recess time!
- School: American School of the Hague