Restoring Connections

 Team Photo Above at Madison Meadow! 

For the Restoring Connections team for the Environmental Leadership Program, our project was all about getting students outside, encouraging environmental stewardship, and teaching for a variety of learning styles. We did this through eight different lesson plans for 241 elementary schoolers. We reached grades kinder-3rd and taught in 11 different classrooms at Adams Elementary School. From Adams Elementary School, we walked the students to Madison Meadow for their field trips. Madison Meadow is a local park maintained by a board of neighborhoods and a nonprofit. Within the project, I was a teacher for 3rd grade in the classroom and was a lead for 1st and 3rd graders on the field trips. I also helped to write the 1st and 3rdgrade pre-trip lessons and field trip lesson plans. Our plans used pedagogical teaching methods to engage the students’ mental wellbeing and physical health. We inspired empathy in these students by teaching them about the importance of pollinators like hummingbirds, Mason Bees, and Violet-green swallows. We taught about connection to place by allowing the students to practice their plant identification skills with native trees and shrubs at Madison Meadow. We also taught games like owl-eye tag, bat-moth tag and camouflaging to reflect predator and prey relationships and the importance of using all five senses. Altogether, we better connected 241 elementary schoolers to the environment in their own neighborhood.