Earth Month Contest

By:

*I am adding this as its own submission specifically for the earth month contest. It
has more description about our Bay Habitat Project than my other submissions I have made
for the green Ribbon Schools.*

   The Bay Elementary Habitat Day took months to plan. There were several teachers, parents the
community(including firefighters),members of Lyondellbasell(a local
business) and the James F. Bay PTA  involved in making this dream a success. The area looks amazing and
the students are already enjoying it. I am very proud of our accomplishment as
a community and a team! The decision to create this area was made with the plan
to enrich the educational experience for all our Bay students. It is proven
that our kids are better learners, have better self esteem, reduced
stress, are more cooperative, confident, smarter and better test takers when
offered the opportunity to develop learning skills outside of the classroom.
That was the vision. Here is our story…

On April 9th At Bay Elementary, students, teachers, parents and the community came
together in "Making Bay Beautiful" by creating an outdoor wildlife habitat,
outdoor classroom and gardening area for the children at Bay. There are now butterfly
gardens, vegetable and fruit beds, flower beds and tables which were
handmade with wood specifically for this outdoor classroom (the tables were
made at a previous Earth day event, but were refinished and repaired this
time). A drip irrigation system was installed the week before so it would be
ready for all the planting. The 175 volunteers helped to build the planting
beds and a storage shed also! They made handicap accessible crushed granite
paths as well. The area is being used by our students to learn all about
planting, butterflies, birds and composting as well with our brand new
composting bin we installed. The plants are bird and butterfly friendly and are
already attracting monarch caterpillars.

On our Habitat Project Day, volunteers spent about 8 hours working on the area,
which is located in the back of Bay Elementary. It is a wide open green space and offers
plenty of sunlight and also places of shade. That day, we had many fun
activities for the children to participate in. They planted all the flowers,
helped with digging, carried new plants, watered the gardens, painted the
storage shed, did craft projects and of course played in a huge dirt pile!!
This outdoor classroom has some beautiful wooden benches for the students to
sit at and there are also plenty of grassy areas under trees for children to
sit under and read and do nature observations. We have many plans to add to
this nature area/habitat/outdoor classroom. We are planning a wetlands area, a
gazebo/stage area, as well as a Texas
prairie area. We will also be installing huge sun sails to shade the tables
from the Texas sun.

Teachers and parents are scheduled to have a 3 to 4 hour professional development class
this week about taking care of the habitat and ways that we can incorporate the
habitat into our curriculum. We want for this new area to be a part of our daily learning at Bay. Students will
use the area not just for Science, but also for Reading, Writing and Math where they can do
observations, creative writing, relaxing reading, and calculations when it
comes to our compost and irrigation systems. A Junior Master Gardener club has
already been established and is currently being organized by a teacher and
parent whom are working with the students on taking care of our new fabulous
garden space! This learning area was created with so much love for this school
and for our students. There is so much pride for Bay Elementary and it showed
so much that day! This project will for sure benefit the school and community
for years to come with its beauty and educational opportunities. We have some
pictures here and I am also including a link to a slideshow that shows our day in action...

http://cid-4a422fac6dda1087.photos.live.com/play.aspx/Outdoor%20Nature%20Center%20Phase%201?sa=107999245

*A million thanks to the superhero of the Bay Outdoor Learning area: Karen Rompot.
She is a parent and Bay PTA executive board member. It is her vision that made that day such a huge
success. Karen, your passion for nature and love for our students created
something that will benefit Bay’s students for years to come. You never gave
up! Everyone is so proud of you!

*Special thanks to the amazing Bay outdoor learning center planning team of moms: Denise
Giuliani, Abby LaGatella, Genny Wagley, Jennifer Copeland, and Nancy Jones. Your months of
planning and dedication to this project made the day run smoothly and made it
especially fun for the kids in attendance! We are currently forming committees
for maintenance and curriculum development. Thank you in advance to those who
will be part of the future care of our outdoor habitat.

*Thank you to the following businesses/organizations/individuals for their support and
donations to this project: LyondellBasell(especially Gayden & Jordan), the Bay PTA executive
board, Alliance Pastex, Texas Best Landscaping & Fence, Clear Creek
Equipment, Kevin Harris with the CCISD Maintenance department, Masterpiece
Custom Homes, Bay Area Design & Landscape, Bay Area Trees, Gulf Coast
Limestone, HPP Corp, Tractor Supply Corporation, Living Earth, Theo & Lisa
Presswood , Sherwin Williams, Ed White Habitat/Shelia Brown, Nancy Jones, Lowes
and Gales Bayport Feed Supply. We couldn’t have done this without you!!!

*Thanks to the fabulous faculty and staff of James F. Bay Elementary for all your
support. Your giving spirit and all your volunteer time shows just how
wonderful our school is. Our children are so lucky to have people who care so much
for them!

*and…Thank you, Thank you, Thank you to the 175 volunteers who showed up and helped out
wherever you were needed. Your involvement in education makes the difference in our children’s lives. Our
community is awesome!

                                                                        *GO EAGLES!!*