Our plan
Our school had an unused concrete alley between the school and the playground. At lunch, some students did not want to be in the rowdy playground but had nowhere else to go. While talking to the principal about projects parents could raise funds for, the idea came up to put a planter and bench in the alley so students could read quietly outside during lunch recess if they wanted. We wanted to encourage reading, encourage contact with nature, and give students who wanted it a quiet refuge on school grounds.
What we did
We found a partner in New Yorkers for Parks, who helped us design and build a garden with planters that could also be used as benches, and a small stage with a blackboard behind it. Local elected officials contributed money. Parents, teachers, and students tended the garden. Eventually it was used as an outdoor classroom, for poetry readings and lessons including reading, drawing, and horticulture. It became a community space used several times a year for PTA receptions. The Reading Garden also made connections between reading and planting: volunteer reading tutors planted tulip bulbs with their students in the fall, promising to make reading skills bloom by the time the bulbs flowered in spring.
Our results
Eventually the Reading Garden became the springboard for other environmental projects in the school, so that the students are being trained as the next generation of climate stewards. There are now green guidelines for classroom supplies, the fall fair had a green theme, and the school is participating this year in the Green Schools Alliance's Green Cup Challenge, an energy reduction contest. And the Garden is still a beautiful spot tended by the community.
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