Green Space in the Classroom

Over the past 6 months, I have done research over the impact nature has on the health of our children.  My journey began with Richard Louv's book, Last Child in the Woods.  This was a springboard into further readings: Vitamin N, Balanced and Barefoot, How to Raise a Wild Child, and more.  One thing became clear to me: many of our children do not have near the same amount of time in domestic and wild nature as many of us did growing up.  I knew I needed to do something.

Being in education, I am passionate about meeting the academic, social, emotional, and behavioral needs of my students from year to year.  Since the beginning of my career, I have observed an increase of student needs regarding anxiety, depression, attention, mental health, and undesirable behaviors in general.  I cannot help but think there is something more we could be doing within the school to meet the needs of our children. It is my personal and professional responsibility to reach out and ask for support from the community to help and support our children.

In today’s society, I believe there is a decrease of “green space” in our children’s lives.  Nature, animals, plants, and outdoor activities have to compete with developing technology, iPads, Kindles, tablets, video games, computers, phones, and more.  These devices, along with social media, have the potential to impact our children’s mental health, attention, and academic success. One way to combat this is to introduce more “green space” into our schools and classrooms.  Green space includes plants, animals, and other natural elements.  Many therapists now recommend to adults to get out in nature to decrease stress and improve mental health, and I believe the same goes for our children!  My vision is to bring nature, plants, and animals into my classroom for this upcoming school year.  Plants, animals, and time in nature have shown to promote mindfulness, decrease anxiety, and improve mental health within our children.  I am reaching out to our community to ask for your help!

In my classroom, I would be reaching 20-25 students.  Smaller plants range from $4-6.  I can secure pots for these plants at $1 a piece.  Medium and larger plants range from $6+. Pots for these plants would range from $5+.  Soil, rocks, and other supplies add on additional costs as well!  Ideally, I would love to have one plant per child prior to the school year starting to get our vision up and running.  I also envision adding larger plants to promote a calming classroom environment as we progress.

Thank you for taking your time to read about my vision to help our children!