Sowing Seeds in the Snow!
Holloway Elementary School students braved the cold and snow to work with the Toledo Zoo to get the school’s prairie seeded. All classes had the opportunity to help spread the seeds on the snow—we learned from our Project PRAIRIE partners at the Toledo Zoo, that winter is a great time to sow the seeds (the district’s first Project PRAIRIE site was planted in the winter of 2018 at Dorr Elementary School).
For those less familiar, Project PRAIRIE is a collaborative effort between the district and the Toledo Zoo and provides the opportunity for the students to get outside and learn more about our environment. A quick visit to the zoo’s website shares a few more details: Project PRAIRIE (PRAiries that InvigoRate Inquiry LEarning) extends their Wild Toledo prairie initiative into local classrooms by utilizing the flower installations as living labs. It is an inquiry-based education program that trains students and their teachers to use native prairie habitats for citizen science projects that contribute to a larger body of global research to make a difference in the natural world. Toledo Zoo conservation staff installs urban prairie on the property of participating schools while zoo education staff trains teachers and students to use the prairies for citizen science, inquiry learning projects and follows up with related classroom programming. Springfield’s elementary schools are some of only a few that provide our young citizens with these remarkable science platforms.
Back to Holloway—after allowing the students to participate in a schoolwide planting, Holloway teachers will utilize the prairie to teach children about all the living and growing things right outside their doors. We look forward to developing our partnership with the Toledo Zoo as our prairie grows—this will surely have a great impact on our whole school community.
