Love letters to a stream

It’s Earth Day week, and students have been asked to go outside and write love letters to Gordon's stream.
 

The second grade prompts were: 

What do you love about the creek?
What does the creek need from us?
What would you like the creek to know?
 

Their teacher reminds them: Show, don’t tell. If the stream needs love, explain what that looks like. What do you need to do?
 

The stream looks pretty funky this week.
 

Students have been playing in it, hard, all year long.
 

The buildings and grounds team has taken the first stabs at removing invasive species.
 

None of the spring plants have really grown in yet.
 

It looks like it got half a haircut.
 

Water is seeping into muddy grass which is forming puddles up against the school.
 

But that’s not what these students see.
 

They see the home for water strider bugs.
 

They see the place where they played Sharks and Minnows.
 

They see the bushes where they’ve chased their friends.
 

They see the rocks that formed secret paths to cross the imaginary lava.
 

They see a stream they love that’s connected to the pond they love that feeds out into the bay they drive past every day.
 

They see a friend that maybe needs their help.
 

They see a place where they can make a difference.
 

They see a chance to share some love.

Gordon is undertaking a stream restoration project aimed at 

• Improving water quality
• Reducing erosion along the banks
• Preventing water from running against the building
• Supporting native habitat and biodiversity

The first step in this project is engaging the students: learning what they value about the stream, and helping them understand their role in the process. 

So this week, students are writing love letters to the stream. These will be collected and mounted in a mural that will go up in early May.

More on Gordon's ongoing sustainability work at www.gordonschool.org/sustainability