Illustrated Thank You Cards from View Ridge Students
Nature deficit disorder did not happen for 90 View Ridge Elementary 5th-graders for three consecutive days in April. Starting with a one-mile walk from their school in Seattle to the Burke-Gilman Trail and green belt, these kids were outdoors for several hours in often cold and rainy conditions. They were walking to partake in two hours of landscape restoration and bird watching.
You might assume that today’s kids would not want to walk a mile in bad weather, dig holes in rocky, muddy earth to plant the likes of Yarrow, Piggy-back Plants, Bleeding Hearts and then, search for birds. You would be wrong.
Over the three-day period, these students planted 350 native plants and tallied 26 species of birds. They saw nesting Cooper’s Hawks, and had close-up views of Anna’s Hummingbirds, Downy Woodpeckers and even a Red Crossbill. Best of all, they enjoyed it. How do I know? Listen to what they had to say:
“Can we do it longer…much longer?” (After spending five minutes of silence counting birds)
“The bird watching was SOOOOOO fun!!”
“I really enjoyed watching the birds.”
“I never knew that there were so many different types of birds”
“The experience was amazing.”
“It was really fun. I might even want to do it again some time.”
“I loved the bird watch.”
“I hope to do it again. Can you come to our school?”
“Some people said that they spotted 30 birds! I think that is pretty cool.”
Public schools like View Ridge Elementary are often strapped for funds, short-staffed and unable to offer bus transit for field trips. This school and its resourceful staff found a way, by walking, to provide this experience to its students. According to materials sent to me by one of the teachers, the content of the experience fit well into the State’s essential academic learning requirements in science.
None of this would have happened were it not for Margaret Thoules, chair of the Friends of Burke-Gilman Sandpoint (FOBGS), who successfully garnered a $500 grant to cover the costs of plants, educational materials and me. Bonnie Miller, vice chair of FOBGS, brought tools and taught the students how to use them to plant native plants along the trail. She then supervised them while they did it.
This model of stewardship and bird appreciation can and should be replicated elsewhere. Students will be stewards of the earth long after the rest of us older folk are gone. We owe it to them to teach these lessons of responsible living on earth. As Lisa Kadobayashi, their teacher said:
“It was a wonderful experience and a unique opportunity to consider our local birds and their habitats.”
