Students Have A Chance To Grow For Arbor Day

Children’s Adventure Center teacher Nora Lundgren leaned on a gardening spade and looked across the center’s back lawn where children crawled through playground equipment on April 24. She soon turned her attention to a sapling propped in its pot next to a fresh hole in the ground.

Sue and Dean Harrell of Picture Perfect Landscaping, also the parents of students Rylee and Colby, had recently donated a tree to the center. Ms Lundgren explained, “The staff thought it would be nice to plant a tree for Arbor Day.” Connecticut recognizes Arbor Day on the last Friday in April, which was April 25 this year.

Next to the tree was a mound of soil that had already attracted children’s attention as they eagerly pushed their shovels into the heap. Planting was about to begin. Staff member Tabby Godfrey lifted the tree’s root ball from its container as the students watched the entangled mulch and soil cluster settle into place.

Shoulder to shoulder were Kevin Gong, Matthew Weisgerber, Evan Booth, Colby Harrell and in the fun for a shovelfull or two was Michaela Intemann, as the children gripped their shovels and began moving the fresh-turned earth over the roots.

The school’s recent lessons fit well with putting a tree in the ground that afternoon. “We have been studying the Earth and Arbor Day all week,” Ms Lundgren said. She hopes her classes will “learn to make the earth a better place.” Included in lessons was a trip through the outdoors. “We took a nature walk,” she said.