Create outdoor classrooms with your students!
Interested in connecting your students with the natural world? Searching for help with a stormwater problem at your school? Looking for a way to beautify your school landscape?
Our outdoor classrooms begin with students working together to establish a native garden at school. Students clear weeds, spread leaf mulch, and plant species native to NC that entice pollinators to the garden. These gardens can be used by classes to study math, science, and the arts, while solving flooding issues and promoting biodiversity on school grounds. They also become calming spaces for administrators, teachers, school social workers, and others working with children to regulate their emotions during the school day.
Projects can include (but are not limited to): pollinator gardens, rain gardens, vegetated swales, riparian buffers, and terraced hillsides. Core curriculum-linked, hands-on science lessons are offered in conjunction with the project to ensure students understand the ways in which their work is having a positive impact on their community and the planet.
We work with public and private schools, pre-K through 12th grade. Funding support for public schools is available. Please reach out to us if you’re interested in bringing this program to you school!
Our outdoor classrooms begin with students working together to establish a native garden at school. Students clear weeds, spread leaf mulch, and plant species native to NC that entice pollinators to the garden. These gardens can be used by classes to study math, science, and the arts, while solving flooding issues and promoting biodiversity on school grounds. They also become calming spaces for administrators, teachers, school social workers, and others working with children to regulate their emotions during the school day.
Projects can include (but are not limited to): pollinator gardens, rain gardens, vegetated swales, riparian buffers, and terraced hillsides. Core curriculum-linked, hands-on science lessons are offered in conjunction with the project to ensure students understand the ways in which their work is having a positive impact on their community and the planet.
We work with public and private schools, pre-K through 12th grade. Funding support for public schools is available. Please reach out to us if you’re interested in bringing this program to you school!
Raise monarch butterflies with your students!
Our monarch program begins in the spring by planting a pollinator garden on school grounds. Students clear weeds, spread leaf mulch, and plant species native to NC that will entice pollinators to the garden. Every garden includes native species of milkweed, a perennial host plant required by monarchs that will grow year after year, ensuring that teachers can continue to rear monarchs in the future. The garden provides space for exploration throughout the year, offering an outdoor classroom for science, math, and the arts.
The first autumn after the garden is planted, we will supply classrooms with monarch caterpillars, milkweed, and rearing enclosures. Teachers will receive training in handling the caterpillars and butterflies and changing milkweed plants as leaves are consumed. After the butterflies have finished their metamorphosis, the class will release the monarchs into their garden. Each student will have an opportunity to hold the butterflies before they continue on their migration south towards Mexico. In subsequent autumns, the garden will continue to provide monarch eggs and caterpillars to classrooms interested in raising and releasing monarchs.
We work with public and private schools, pre-K through 12th grade. Funding support for public schools is available. Please reach out to us if you’re interested in bringing this program to you school!
The first autumn after the garden is planted, we will supply classrooms with monarch caterpillars, milkweed, and rearing enclosures. Teachers will receive training in handling the caterpillars and butterflies and changing milkweed plants as leaves are consumed. After the butterflies have finished their metamorphosis, the class will release the monarchs into their garden. Each student will have an opportunity to hold the butterflies before they continue on their migration south towards Mexico. In subsequent autumns, the garden will continue to provide monarch eggs and caterpillars to classrooms interested in raising and releasing monarchs.
We work with public and private schools, pre-K through 12th grade. Funding support for public schools is available. Please reach out to us if you’re interested in bringing this program to you school!