Creating a Courtyard of Curiousity

One Team, One Dream. That’s the vision of Pride Avenue Elementary School, a school of 400 students in Madisonville, Kentucky. Our vision helps create a school climate that is positive, family-oriented, and geared toward exploration and hands-on learning.

Our new Courtyard of Curiosity supports that vision. Thanks to my PLT training we have incorporated PLT activities into my school, and thanks to a PLT GreenWorks! grant, we are well on the way to creating an inviting, easy-to-use space between an existing and newly added wing of the school.

Making Outdoor Memories
When I started teaching here, I was literally coming home. I attended Pride Avenue Elementary myself! Back then, we sometimes went out in the woods behind the school, which had a small amphitheatre that has since fallen into disrepair. I remembered my own experiences out there so well.

So when some of the teachers began to talk about an outdoor learning area, I knew it would be great for Pride Avenue kids. Unlike the area from my childhood, however, we decided the outdoor space should be easily accessible from the school building. The Courtyard has doors right out to it from two different parts of the school.

Through a partnership with Green Giant Landscaping and employees from General Electric, students planned, built, and now maintain our new area. So far, fifth graders developed a butterfly garden in conjunction with a Chrysalis project. They released butterflies into the garden and have observed many butterflies that lingered with us. They will remember the release of the butterflies for years to come!

Fourth- and fifth-graders set up a composting station—composting pumpkins was also a real hit.

A local Girl Scout troop approached us to plant rose bushes in one corner of the area. They earned their badges, and we have a beautiful spot to enjoy. We plan to have an outdoor plaque installed in this area to feature the girls by name from the troop that completed it. Various trees and bushes, native as well as nonnative to Kentucky, are spread throughout the courtyard. Benches will be installed near these areas to create little “sanctuaries” for reading and reflection.

Making the Dream Happen
Things got off to a slower start than we anticipated, partly due to delays with school construction going on simultaneously. It turned out the adjoining area needed a better drainage system, which our board office provided, through an in-kind $20,000 expense. It took a while to trouble-shoot and solve the problem. But the upside is that the plants and trees in the Courtyard will fare much better with improved drainage.

A PLT GreenWorks! grant provided a good portion of our funding. Other sources included a $2,000 grant from the Hopkins County Education Foundation and additional funding and products through contests run by the Sonic Corporation (Limeades for Learning-$800 in products) and Big Lots (Lots2Give-$2,500 grant).  These contests were based on online voting and, with a little organization, these kinds of opportunities can pay off. We mobilized the school community to vote through reminders on school menus and other information that went home in backpacks and flyers distributed to parents during afternoon pick-up time. It worked!

Lessons Along the Way
Although ours is still a work in progress, we have already learned some valuable lessons.

• We were hoping to start planting in 2009, but it took until April of 2011 to really get things rolling. Some circumstances were out of our control—we just had to accept that. But we didn’t give up the project either! We continued to work with the school district’s Facilities office to keep our dream alive. Patience and determination paid off.
• We also learned help comes from unexpected places. In addition to funding, that help also included volunteers from local employers. For example, the plant leader for GE is the father of a student who attends Pride. He brought about 20 volunteers with him on a Saturday to landscape the area. This initial landscaping effort only took five to six hours utilizing an eager group of volunteers versus days with only a handful of our school stakeholders. Thank goodness we all had team spirit and wanted to give back to students in our community.
• We have many new ideas to achieve. Several concepts involve creating more habitats for students to observe living creatures in natural places, as well as learning how we can capture energy from the sun. They include installing a pond, stocking it, and connecting it to a solar-powered pump. Solar-powered birdbaths will also be installed. We have a spider web frame to establish when warm weather breaks so we can examine the formation of webs up close and personal while respecting wildlife. A plant cam has been purchased to capture photos over time to assemble into a video that will show the full life cycle of growth.

So far, older students have spent the most time on activities in the Courtyard. We are hoping they can serve as mentors to younger students, a relationship that will benefit both groups. It’s been a growing adventure creating our “Courtyard of Curiosity,” and we are definitely cultivating minds here at Pride through its creation!

Kelly Gates, a PLT-trained and a National Board Certified Teacher, teaches fifth grade at Pride Avenue Elementary School in Madisonville, KY.