TULSA — As part of their gardening unit in class, kindergarteners at Eliot Elementary are planting flowers outside of their school.
Teacher Glenda Bressler came up with the idea to beautify the courtyard outside of their classrooms. She and Connie Moore decided they would make a garden with their students this year.
"We teach them the things plants need to grow obviously water, sunlight, those kinds of things, what it means to take ownership in a project and what it means to be proud of their work," Bressler said.
She said the students would spend all day working in them if they could.
Bressler said the idea has grown into much more thant they ever imagined it would be. They now have several flowerbeds and they started out with plans to only have one.
"Yellow, white, purple and bright purple," kindergarten student, Lucy, said naming off some of the colors in the gardens.
The gardens are lined with pavers painted by the students and have trinkets some of them have brought from home.
Everything inside the gardens have been donated, including the pavers, bricks, plants, lights and benches. Bressler said they even have master gardeners and parents who have donated their time.
"Looking at this and watching the parents, it's just made our hearts happy," Moore said. "I mean just to see everybody participating and, "What can I do?" and "What do you need?"
Bressler said there are days she shows up to school and new things have been added.
She said they want the neighborhood to be proud of their school. The students sure are. They have already started signing up to water the gardens during the summer.
"We feel joy and happy and proud of it," Lucy said.
The teachers are looking to expand the number of gardens they have and are accepting donations. It goes along with the lesson they are trying to pass on to the students, "Teamwork makes the dream work."
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