| HOLLY
FOWLER - 7TH GRADE TEACHER
Rivergold students hard at work on their landscaping project through
a Landscape Design class.
Some electives
are fun, some teach life skills, some produce a beautiful end product,
and some challenge the minds and bodies of young students. Landscape
Design, an elective begun in the second quarter that has extended
to third quarter, has been all of those things to a hardworking group
of Rivergold sixth, seventh, and eighth graders.
Over the last two years, Rivergold has added over 140 new students
to its campus. With that growth has come the necessity to move upper
graders to the relatively barren lower playfield for recess. The fall
was long and hot, with no shade on the lower field and no place for
these older students to sit and relax. Then an idea was conceived:
A class whose focus would be planning and implementing the improvement
of Rivergold’s playfield field.
During Landscape Design I, students walked the area to get a feel
for possible improvement that could be made. After studying garden
books for plants that are both drought tolerant and deer resistant,
perusing school supply catalogs for outdoor furniture, and deciding
on the size and type of shade structure, the students measured and
drew up scale plans of the areas to be developed. These plans included
ideas for trees, flowers and bushes, new picnic tables, benches, stairs
to connect the field to the classroom, a shade structure, two raised
planting beds, and a stream bed to correct some drainage problems.
The plan was then presented to the School Site Council, and a budget
was approved for the improvement of the lower field.
Many of the same students came back to implement these plans during
third quarter’s Landscape Design II. What a wonderful, hard-working
group of children they have turned out to be! They began by pulling
weeds, raking and seeding with wildflowers two large hillsides. By
the end of the quarter, they will have put in 24 railroad tie steps,
constructed two raised planters, created a 75 foot long drainage stream
of river rock, and planted seven new trees, 25 bushes and 300 daffodil
bulbs.
Throughout this project, the students have learned some principles
of landscape design, how to work cooperatively, and most importantly,
that hard work is fun and satisfying especially when it produces a
beautiful end product. These students are so proud of the area they
are creating for future generations of Rivergold students!
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