ILMS Parent Group Peace GardenILMS Parent Group Info | Fundraising | Volunteers List | Peace Garden | Business Directory The Peace Garden at Ivy League MontessoriThis fall, the parent group at Ivy League Montessori is creating a Peace Garden for the playground area. The idea of a Peace Garden is an international one, symbolizing the unity of all peoples towards the global goal of peace. Each garden is unique to its environs, but encompasses similar elements: plantings to honor various regions, an area of meditation, and a promise to promote peace, first locally, and then globally. Additionally, the area will be used as an outdoor classroom for the students at ILMS. This turns the garden into a teaching tool and a teaching space. The students will have the ability to observe and manipulate their environment here, and learn from and then apply these lessons to other aspects of their lives. Every aspect of the garden can be incorporated into the curriculum. For instance: counting seeds for math; writing descriptions of, or poetry about, the garden for language classes; growing specific plants for botany experiments or identification; locating the region of origin of a specific plant, and then learning about that area of the world, etc. The opportunities are unlimited. Also, we will make this garden rich in sensorial experiences with plantings that entice and utilize all five senses. And we will be teaching organic methods of gardening that we hope the students will share with their parents. We want to make the student's time in the garden fruitful, and give them skills and experiences they will take with them for a lifetime. The garden will begin with the construction of the hardscape: we will level out the lower playground area, and then construct 3 large raised beds, a seating area consisting of 5 benches for student seating, and trellised arbor to be used for a teaching station and a meditation space. The design is circular, with the trellis and benches on the upper ¾ of the circle, and a completing arc of tiles hand created by the students on the lower portion. We will begin construction as soon as we can get the area leveled, and the timbers delivered. We are excited to share this experience with you and our students. As are most things, it is a work in progress, and all help will be gratefully accepted and put to good use. Rusk Jones has offered to level the area - very generous of him. Once this is accomplished, we can begin construction of the beds. DONATIONS:We are in need of the following donations for this project:
If you can make a donation, please arrange it with one of the following parents:
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