Five Virginia Beach schools are becoming official Tree Campuses, thanks to The Great Outdoors Learning Project.

Virginia Beach City Public Schools and Virginia Beach Parks and Recreation worked with community partners to help students use their science and math skills and learn about the important role trees play in the environment.

Arbor Day and tree-planting ceremonies took place at Thalia, Brookwood and Corporate Landing elementary schools, and at Plaza and Corporate Landing middle schools. Each school will be recognized this spring as official Tree Campuses by the Arbor Day Foundation.

Fourth graders in Thalia Elementary’s garden club recently gathered outside the school to celebrate their school’s new redbud tree, led by principal Nicole Keros and teachers Alison Cooper and Samantha Clover.

Clover started by listing several benefits trees have.

“The beautiful trees on our campus, in our neighborhoods, and beyond, provide habitats for countless species of animals,” said Clover, adding that trees cut pollution, prevent erosion and muffle sound.

Students added their favorite facts about trees.

“Trees are part of nature,” fourth grader Chloe Butts said. “We need them to grow, because they make us healthier.”

Thalia student Isabelle Rogers said, “Trees breathe in carbon dioxide and make oxygen, which helps us breathe.”

Brooke Costanza, city arborist with Virginia Beach Parks & Recreation, helped students add dirt and replace mulch around the newly planted tree.

Ashley Porter, a content integration specialist at Thalia Elementary used math and data analysis as part of the program.

“We pulled infographics from Virginia Beach’s Urban Forest Management Plan that support the tree initiative and allow our students to see data in a real-world scenario that impacts where they live,” Porter said. “We were able to find various data pieces in the resource that support the math and science standards our students are already learning and share it through the lens of Arbor Day and our school’s tree initiative.”

For a school to become a Tree Campus, they must:

• Form a tree team of staff, students and community members dedicated to achieving Tree Campus recognition.
• Develop an educational plan that connects students to tree and their global benefits, inside or outside the classroom.
• Have hands-on activities that bring the school’s tree spirit to the community.
• Have an Arbor Day observance or tree celebration.

Bridget Mariano, the school division’s K-12 programs and grants coordinator who oversees the Great Outdoors Learning Project, said the Virginia Beach community is extremely supportive of schools.

“These partnerships help our students expand their understanding of their role in the local and global community now and in the future,” she said. “Besides the support from Virginia Beach Parks and Recreation, the Virginia Beach Master Gardener Tree Stewards served as consultants early in the process, and we hope to engage with them more in the future.”

Students at Corporate Landing Middle School used the VBTrees Inventory ArcGIS map to guide a research and action project ultimately leading to a student-designed tagging system. The school had 54 trees planted as part of Dominion Energy’s offshore wind project. To offset the removal of trees to make room for landside transmission lines, new trees are being planted in various locations in Virginia Beach. In addition to Corporate Landing Middle, 15 trees were planted at Corporate Landing Elementary, and three were planted in the median between the two schools.

The Arbor Day initiative culminated April 12, when city, state, and school officials also joined students and Virginia Beach Parks & Recreation representatives for a tree-planting ceremony at the Brookwood Elementary to commemorate the 44th Tree City designation for the City of Virginia Beach.

ifth grader Troy Wittner and principal Laura Celentano gave some remarks before posing for a photo with School Board member Michael Callan by their school’s new tulip poplar. Jackson Pryor, a student in Mrs. McTyre’s class, said he enjoyed the event.

“For every tree we plant, the more oxygen we get,” he said.

City Councilman Michael Berlucchi was one of the dignitaries grabbing a shovel for the ceremony.

“As a member of City Council, I can tell you people in Virginia Beach love trees,” he said.

This is the first year VBCPS has sought tree campus designations, and the division hopes to expand the initiative to include more schools next year.

Michael Kirschman, the director of Virginia Beach Parks and Recreation, noted that the tree partnership is the latest in a long history of partnerships between his department and the schools, such as the longstanding after-school childcare program.

“I probably remember every tree I planted,” he said. “The kids who are part of today’s event, years from now after they leave school, they’ll come back and remember they helped plant this tree.”