Bloom Community School celebrated Arbor Day afternoon with the The Town of Normal Parks and Recreation Department. Ms. Jess and Ms. Alanna’s Kindergarten through fifth grade students walked to the Normal Community Activity Center and planted a Red Oak tree.
Jessica Schiek (aka Ms. Jess) teaches Kindergarten through 2nd grades which is called the pods class. The third grade through fifth grade class is known as the sprouts. Both groups helped plant the tree on Friday afternoon.
Schiek describes Bloom School as a private not for profit progressive school. Their definition of progressive is following current research, developmentally appropriate practices and meeting the children where they are not based on their age or grade but just where they are as individuals. Schiek says they are outside a lot.
Alanna Oster(aka Ms. Alanna) teaches the sprouts. She added that the school focuses on play, exploration and emotional intelligence. They focus on community relationships and kindness. Oster, in her first year as a teacher at Bloom, said the experience has been amazing because the school is a ready made community.
Bloom School is finishing its sixth year.
Mulberry School celebrated the morning with the town of Normal as Ms. Zarina Plath’s first through third graders walked to the activity center and planted an American Beech tree.
According to Tyler Bain, Parks Maintenance Supervisor for the Town of Normal the town has been planting trees with children for the last 8 years. Other schools that have participated in the past include Calvary, Glenn, Kingsley and Parkside. The schools are chosen based on locations near where the town can plant a tree.
Bain provided tips to the children on trees. One tip was “plant it high it will never die, plant it low it will never grow.”
“People sometimes plant a little bit too low,” Bain said. “And then ten years later they wonder why their tree is not doing well. And more often then not we find that it’s just because it is too low. So we like to try to find the first root on the tree and plant it at least right at the height of the grass and we have had pretty good success with that.”
Arbor day started in In April 1872 when Founder J. Sterling Morton and residents of Nebraska City started planting trees to make the empty plains of the Midwest more welcoming to settlers. Within a generation, Arbor Day was celebrated in all 50 states and many other countries around the world.
