Sustainability coordinator Jodi Tucci (at lecturn) welcomes everyone to the ribbon-cutting, joined by garden team members (from left) teacher Linda Vozza, paraprofessional Mariana Vozza and teacher Justine Futerman.
“Being outside helps children learn,” said Jodi Tucci, the sustainability coordinator and a 4th-grade teacher at PS/MS 146 in Howard Beach, Queens. That was the principle that led her to spearhead the effort to create an outdoor learning center and gratitude garden in front of the school building. She knew the project would be beautiful and serve as a place for learning.
The learning center is adorned in the school colors of yellow and blue.
The garden, which was unveiled to the community at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on June 12, contains several seating areas, plots for flowers and edible plants, a decorative path of painted stones, games like Connect 4 and hopscotch, and a whiteboard for class sessions. It’s all yellow and blue — the school colors.
“The kids just love it there,” said Linda Vozza, a 4th-grade teacher and a member of the committee that built the garden.
Teachers hold classes and do read-alouds in the garden. Others use the space for meditation. This school year, students are beginning their work to expand the plants that grow there, including bulb plants such as tulips and daffodils as well as herbs and vegetables the cooking club will use in its recipes.
Those who turned out for the ceremony enjoy the different features of the garden.
The garden committee — made up of Tucci; Vozza; her daughter, paraprofessional Mariana Vozza; and art teacher Justine Futerman — poured hours of work into the garden. They arrived early and stayed late to do the landscaping themselves.
“A lot of times we’d work in the morning and then have to go in and teach a class,” said Futerman. “We have funny pictures where I’m covered in dirt.”
Still, all the educators describe the project as a collaborative effort involving the whole community. Adults with developmental disabilities from Lifestyle Workshop, a nearby nonprofit, built the benches, a birdhouse and a bat house. Lowe’s and Home Depot donated materials. Parents and staff members helped with the gardening. And every student in the school painted a rock, many with inspiring words like “believe,” “hope” and “share,” and others with favorite sports team logos, flowers or emojis.
Kindergartners perform under the direction of teacher and Chapter Leader Eileen Perini (standing, at right).
The PS/MS 146 staff members named the space a gratitude garden because they hope to foster gratitude as a positive psychology practice.
Chapter Leader Eileen Perini said as students gather in the garden, they’ve had conversations about the things they are grateful for. “It’s all for the kids,” she said.
The educators also want to encourage gratitude, and therefore responsibility, for the natural world.
Futerman said she hopes students will learn “how important it is to take care of the space around you,” and “how important it is to go outside and learn.” She explained how, for example, students can learn science by studying “the direction of the wind or measuring rain” in the school garden.
The students will dig, weed and watch the fruits and flowers of their labor bloom.