{"id":6251,"date":"2017-03-27T07:00:52","date_gmt":"2017-03-27T11:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/?p=6251"},"modified":"2017-03-27T17:31:13","modified_gmt":"2017-03-27T21:31:13","slug":"kempsville-fifth-graders-learn-give-planting-trees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/kempsville-fifth-graders-learn-give-planting-trees\/","title":{"rendered":"Kempsville fifth-graders learn to give by planting trees"},"content":{"rendered":"

Imagine 70 fifth-graders standing with their feet together, knees together and their hands together. As they wiggle their fingers, they pay homage to the environment by loudly repeating, \u201cJellyfish, jellyfish, jellyfish.\u201d This amusing sight was actually the culmination of a lesson in stewardship.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are planting trees to help the Elizabeth River Project,\u201d said Shelby, a fifth-grade student from Kempsville Elementary School. \u201cIt helps with the environment and gives the animals a habitat. There is sea level flooding and these trees will help prevent that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shelby and her Kempsville Elementary classmates recently converged upon the Woods of Avalon Park along the Elizabeth River to plant Bald Cyprus trees that they had nurtured.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a lot of restoration projects that we do all over the Elizabeth River,\u201d said Robin Dunbar, deputy director of education at Elizabeth River Project (ERP). \u201cFor the last 10 years we have had more than 7,000 students from the cities that the river runs through \u2013 Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake and Virginia Beach \u2013 nurturing trees, wildflowers or grasses in the classroom and then planting them at restoration sites.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tree<\/a>
\nThe National Fishing and Wildlife grant along with support from the Dollar Tree Foundation made the project possible. Fifth-grade teacher Tracy Sykes explained that the trees were the focal point of a much larger lesson.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe received the trees in February so we\u2019ve been taking care of them for about four weeks. Each week we\u2019ve measured them using our metric rulers and keeping track of their growth on a growth chart.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition, we did a couple of lessons on wetlands and the importance of this project,\u201d Sykes continued. \u201cThey were very excited to learn about all of these challenges that this area is going to be faced with in a couple of years. They get to participate in something pretty authentic that is part of the solution, so it\u2019s a very exciting thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dunbar talked about the important role the students were playing. \u201cThis helps us address the loss of wetlands that we have experienced, it helps us address the flood issues that we have had and it also helps us build a more resilient community here in the city.\u201d
\n\"Photo<\/a><\/p>\n

Sykes reflected on the lessons learned as she watched the students scatter across the park, placing their trees in the ground and filling the holes with dirt.<\/p>\n

\"Tree<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe challenges facing this area are real,\u201d Sykes said. \u201cThere are rising sea levels, the destruction of wetlands. The students have learned that we\u2019ve lost a tremendous amount of wetlands over the past 60 to 70 years. They learned about the importance of them and how they can aid in flooding. They could relate to the naval base and the shipyard and economic problems that can occur because of mass flooding. When we look back to the flooding in the fall, it\u2019s a real thing to the students, one that they can really relate to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam is a fifth-grade student who doesn\u2019t mind getting his hands dirty for a good cause.<\/p>\n

\"Tree<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re planting trees for the environment because the waters are rising so we\u2019re going to plant trees and we\u2019ll see if the trees will help,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is important because if we don\u2019t plant the trees the water could get too high. If it gets too high, it could flood buildings and houses and other stuff. I think it\u2019s cool that I helped.\u201d
\n\u201cThere is a deep sense of satisfaction to what they have done,\u201d Sykes added. \u201cAnd it\u2019s a nearby park so they can come visit. They\u2019ve been asking me if they will be able to come back and see their trees and see how they\u2019ve grown. I do think that it is something that will stay with them their entire lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a><\/p>\n

To Dunbar, projects like this are an investment in the future, for the environment and the students.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are 21st century students who are going to be our leaders in the future,\u201d she said, \u201cand I think that they are actually leaders now as they mentor each other. They work as a team and they absolutely love coming outside and maintaining nature and doing their part.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Imagine 70 fifth-graders standing with their feet together, knees together and their hands together. As they wiggle their fingers, they pay homage to the environment by loudly repeating, \u201cJellyfish, jellyfish, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":6259,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[67],"class_list":["post-6251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-connections","tag-kempsville-elementary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6251"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6260,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6251\/revisions\/6260"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}