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June 4, 2009

Elementary constructs Monarch station

Washington Elementary’s new “Green Spot” is finally a reality. The idea for the project began five years ago when Pryor Public Schools purchased vacant property adjacent to the school and across from Bobby Buck Park. Although the primary reason for the purchase of the land was to allow for additional school parking, teachers and school staff began talking of using some of the land for a butterfly garden which would serve as an outdoor science classroom.

Last fall, the City of Pryor initiated the project by building a small picnic area with access to water.

Pryor Academic Excellence Foundation awarded the school a grant in October to fund the remainder of the Washington Green Spot project. When completed, the area will include a monarch way station and an area for community recycling of aluminum cans and recyclable plastics.

Students recently planted the monarch way station under the direction of Matt Ogg, a Washington alumnus and Eagle Scout candidate, who took the project on. Washington identified resources for the design of the garden and secured the materials and appropriate plants. He then enlisted other scouts and community members to get the area ready for planting and held a planting day where students worked with the scouts in the actual planting.

The school plans to have the site registered as an official Monarch Way station through the Monarch Watch organization. Each of the school’s classrooms will receive a Monarch habitat in August so that they can watch the Monarch transformation from caterpillar to butterfly. The butterflies will be tagged and released as they hatch, hopefully in time for the fall migration. Students will track the long migration of the Monarchs from the north to California via blogs. The school plans to document the project on its Web site in an effort to allow

students and community to follow the experience as it takes place.

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