This October, the Schoolyard Habitat Residency student cohort at Price Elementary in Lancaster city completed the first phase of the design and build of a brand new outdoor living laboratory for cross-curricular education and wildlife conservation! It was a joy to facilitate Ms. Honeywell’s former 4th grade class through the continuation of their schoolyard habitat design and build project, by planting the living foundation of the space with 21 ecologically beneficial shrubs and trees. This step sets the stage for the upcoming Spring 2021 student cohort to install the herbaceous layer of the designed woodland edge urban ecosystem.
In preparation for this planting, the 4th grade student class engaged in close observation of their schoolyard and its surroundings through the winter months of 2019-2020; observing signs of wildlife and any shortcomings of this urban habitat in meeting the needs of their adopted critters (ex: red back salamander, Monarch butterfly, Red-bellied woodpecker, beneficial beetles, etc.). Selecting a silent sit-spot was integral to making these observations and to offer recommendations for the new habitat they were challenged to collaboratively design and build. As an opportunity for whole school engagement, Carol Welsh and I guided teachers and students (PreK-5th) in a nature journaling watercolor process; an accessible activity for all to engage and gain comfort to utilize the outdoors as a space for learning.
In Fall 2020, after a hiatus in the project, due to the pandemic, Bianca Cordova, Community School Director, generously and joyously gathered small student groups to continue the Schoolyard Habitat Residency with the culminating stages of designing and beginning to build the 4 elements of a habitat into their underutilized schoolyard lawn space.
In the weeks leading to our collaborative build, I gathered our artists’ “paint palette”. Our functional, living, breathing, outdoor art was crafted with the following materials for this phase of the schoolyard habitat installation;
twenty-one native woodies
many car loads of cardboard boxes
two sizes of wood chips (for trail and sheet mulching beds)
tree cookies and sitting rocks as student sit-spots
diy birdhouse.
In our time together we accomplished quite a lot; we measured the perimeter and area of the proposed space, learned about the native plant species ecological services (ex: fruit bearing for birds, winter protection, medicinal usage for humans, flower power for pollinators, larval hosts, etc.), practiced how to design to scale, planted 21 native shrubs and trees, smothered lots of lawn using an eco-friendly sheet mulching technique (layering matte cardboard with clean wood chips on top), and placed tree cookie steppers in the class circle area. Students were zapped from on-line learning screen time, but would leave our late afternoon sessions with a student participant sharing, “We did wonderful things for the earth today. I can’t believe I planted 12 trees! By the time I’m old, I’m aiming for 1 million!”
“We did wonderful things for the earth today. I can’t believe I planted 12 trees! By the time I’m old, I’m aiming for 1 million!”
We are eager for the next stages of this schoolyard habitat projection to unfold in Spring 2021, when Ms. Honeywell’s current 4th grade class will install the herbaceous layer of the woodland edge ecosystem. For this phase of the schoolyard habitat project, we are grateful for the contributions of many!
Bianca Cordova, Community School Director, and Karal Honeywell, 4th grade Price Elementary teacher, creatively coordinated and gathered students after virtual school hours.
Marci Nelligan, South Central PaARTners Program Coordinator, coordinated the Artist in Residency program, amidst the challenges of the pandemic.
Kristen Thomas, from The Lancaster TreeTenders (a collaborative with the City of Lancaster, Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, and Lancaster City Alliance) graciously donated native shrubs and trees to help expand and layer this schoolyard ecosystem and the Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership donated larger specimen trees to enhance the school campus.
Lydia Martin, from The Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, and Kirsten Krimmel, 8th grade Wheatland MS science teacher and serves on The Lancaster Schoolyard Habitat Alliance Steering Committee, and Mark Kaiser, Master Naturalist and volunteer extraordinaire, generously donated time and energy to complete the sheet mulching process.
The City of Lancaster donated digging shovels for the planting.
The Boys and Girls Club gifted supplies for the Fall student design and build cohort and friends and neighbors donated tree cookies and rocks for future student sit-spots.
The Lancaster Schoolyard Habitat Alliance is a collaboration of community partners working to nurture outdoor living laboratories for cross-curricular environmental education and wildlife conservation. In gratitude to our growing list of partners, each playing a vital role in either educating, designing, building, funding, hosting, and/or managing these schoolyard habitat spaces:
National Wildlife Federation
South Central PaARTners and Pennsylvania Council on the Arts
School District of Lancaster Facilities
Waxwing EcoWorks Co.
The Master Gardener Program of PennState Extension
Pennsylvania Master Naturalists
Interested in helping to support this collaborative effort? Please reach out! Elyse Jurgen, Lancaster Schoolyard Habitat Alliance Coordinator | elyse@waxwingecoworks.com
📷 Photo Credit | Bianca Cordova. To view the full photo album, please visit: https://www.biancacordovaphotography.com/Price-20192020--Schoolyard-Habitat/n-zbvkJb/
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