Habitat Restoration
Neighborhood Trash Pick-Ups
Our middle school students in April 2012 walked around streets north of Patterson Park - streets our students walk on to an from school for an actual math lesson by Greg Heid, middle school math teacher and math IST and cleaned up the trash found. They mapped out the paths that we walked on a Google maps image and then used scale and proportion to figure out how many actual miles they cleaned up. We have always spent a lot of time cleaning up the park but we realized that we see a lot of trash on the streets surrounding the park. The middle school students also used this an 8th grade fundraiser. We asked students to raise money for the amount of trash they picked up and they used this for their 8th grade field trip.
Wetland Creation
Students from the school helped create a wetland area around a natural spring in Patterson Park. What was once a mud pit and nusance to dog walkers and mowers became a wetland with natve plants. It provides food and shelter for animals and filters runoff heading into the "Boat Lake". this spring, fifth grade students will continue this project in conjunction with Audubon, by expanding the wetland.
Blooming the Block
On our service day, April 2012, second graders decorated two liter bottles that
were cut in half. They planted flowers in each of them and picked four blocks
of streets of Lakewood directly in front of our school. They then put flowers
on each of the steps of the rowhouses to 'Bloom the Block'!
were cut in half. They planted flowers in each of them and picked four blocks
of streets of Lakewood directly in front of our school. They then put flowers
on each of the steps of the rowhouses to 'Bloom the Block'!
"Boat Lake" Clean-Ups
Every spring service learning day involves one of our grade levels helping to clean up the Boat Lake, located in Patterson Park. The lake unfortunately gets filled with trash, debris, and weeds through the long, cold winter. This last spring service day (April 2011) our three fifth grade classes were the ones who cleaned it up. They worked closely with Tim Almaguer, organizer from Friends of Patterson Park to do this big project.
Litter Pick Up in the Park
Butterfly Garden at Patterson Park
We use the butterly garden for lessons with the Audubon Society but we were also asked to help maintain these gardens. Students in grades two and three were asked to help weed the gardens on a regular basis and our garden club, which meets weekly, helps to plant native plants and grasses to encourage butterflies to the garden.
Tree Mulching
On March 22,2013 in conjunction with Tree Baltimore and Friends of Patterson Park, our 4 second grade classes had a lesson on what trees need. They then were put in to smaller groups to work together weeding around trees in the park and then were able to mulch them after. Each class worked for 30 minutes with people from FOPP and Tree Baltimore. All students donned gardening gloves and really got into pulling the weeds. Most groups were able to fill a bucket with weeds from around the tree base!