Staten Island School Adopts Nearby Pond - environmental education project - Brief Article

National Wildlife, Oct-Nov, 2001

AS PART OF ITS NWF-CERTIFIED Schoolyard HabitatsR project, P.S. 56 in Staten Island, New York, has made an adjacent pond a focal point for environmental education, both for students and the community at large.

Led by fourth grade teacher Charles Perry, now retired, students have helped with pond cleanups, studied wildlife that congregates there, sampled water quality and researched the history of the pond, once a gathering place for Native Americans. All 120 fourth graders participated in a music and dance program celebrating Lenape Indian traditions, and many of the children contributed pictographs for a mosaic in the school auditorium.

Students and teachers have enhanced the wooded pond setting by planting native trees and bushes and a butterfly garden on the grounds of their three-year-old school.