By Ray Sherer and Chris Schneider
The arrival of Halloween coincided with the end of our fourth successful series of class sessions at the Granville Elementary Schoolyard Habitat. Under the leadership of Jules Galan, the Education Coordinator at the Highlands Center for Natural History, and Master Naturalists Chris Schneider and Ray Sherer, lessons were developed for students in grades K-5. With the able assistance of Master Naturalists Dianne Olson, Shannon Sampson, Phil Taska, Heidi Kleban, Sue Halvorsen, and James Vaughn, along with several other dedicated volunteers, classes were taught every Monday for six weeks.
New this season was the correlation of lesson topics with the Arizona state science and mathematics standards for each grade, assisted by Principal Patricia Scarpa, HUSD STEAM Instruction Specialist Lisa Barnard, and STEAM Instructor Jamie Huber. Lessons focused on the function of leaves for Habitat trees and their individual characteristics. Using a Dichotomous Key created by Master Naturalist Shannon Sampson, students were able to identify the trees of the Habitat based on the leaf characteristics they had learned earlier.
Another portion of the students’ Habitat interaction revolves around their responsibilities as caretakers of the Habitat. This emphasizes their learning that they should care for the natural world around them, even at kindergarten level. Over the course of six weeks, students participated in numerous stewardship tasks. These included fertilizing the trees, pruning and thinning bushes and trees, removing suckers from tree bases, creating a paver path to a new gathering circle, repairing and burying irrigation lines, repairing some stone walls encircling tree bases, adding to the brush and clippings pile which also functions as an animal habitat, and collecting seeds for dispersal during next spring’s sessions.
Finally, sixteen students participated in an after-school program in the Habitat. These students created large painted rocks with the names of the trees which were placed at the foot of each tree, built birdhouse kits with the assistance of the Quailwood Woodworkers, worked on a new garden bed around the Granville Habitat sign, created personal Walking/Journey sticks that function as measuring sticks for outdoor adventures, and with their imaginations and a hammer made colorful leaf designs.
A bulletin board is maintained in the school hallway each week for students to see what is happening in the Habitat. Dates have already been established for the spring sessions in 2025 and volunteers are eager to return!