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conservation action


Butterfly Garden
Highlighting Sleepy Hollow School

Goals
  • Create an on-site example of a native habitat and improve plant diversity on school grounds.
  • Enhance and expand educational opportunities for students at Sleepy Hollow Elementary School.
Location
  • On school property. Butterfly garden is 2000 square feet, as well as 1/3 acre prairie, small savanna and an outdoor seating area for 30 students.
Getting Started
Year One
  1. Formed a project committee, including teachers, parents, non-formal educators, and landscape designers to develop plan for the multi-year endeavor.
  2. Secured $5,000 from Urban Resource Partnership grant to:
    • purchase plant materials and curriculum resources
    • develop a landscape plan
    • create trail by students to delineate prairie
  3. Created Garden Resource Center - conservation education instructional materials for students and teachers.

    Students:
  4. Prepared prairie site and began seeding.
  5. Planted butterfly garden with over 1500 native plants - 100 different native plant species.
  6. Planted prairie seed donated
Year Two
  1. Held in-service for teachers, called "Concepts in Environmental Education."
  2. Completed student prairie mural
Year Three
  1. Held another in-service for all teachers, "Building Classroom Connections to the Prairie Project Resource Center."
  2. Maintaining garden by weeding & watering, as well as conducting many activities outdoors.
Year Four
  1. Conducted first controlled burn
Year Five
  1. Completed Conservation Education Curriculum, which won an award the next year by the Kane-DuPage Soil & Water Conservation District.
Materials
  • Native plants
  • Native seeds
  • Professional herbicide services to prepare site
  • Wood chips
  • Educational resources
Project Cost
  • $5,000 grant from Urban Resource Partnership (URP)
  • Native seeds were donated by Fermilab in Batavia
  • Resource Center funded by Sleepy Hollow Parent Teacher Committee and URP
  • In-service training provided by Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation
  • Over $40,000 in cash, project materials and/or in-kind professional services from 20 community partners
Outcomes
  • Students are involved in the creation and maintenance of a school yard prairie.
  • A conservation education curriculum was developed to use in conjunction with on-site natural area.
  • The garden is used to enhance learning opportunities in instructional areas of science, natural history, cultural history, conservation education and other educational disciplines.
  • An open forum among resource professional and conservation agencies was created to share ideas and information pertaining to natural area habitat creation and restoration.
If another teacher were going to duplicate this project how would they begin?
  • Network. Start small - it takes years to have project grow.
  • Consult native landscape firms, conservation agencies, and environmental education specialist for advice. Local soil and water conservation districts and forest preserve districts can also be very helpful.
  • Seek many opinions for project design and installation strategies for your specific site.
  • Find the common thread among all involved and develop a final design and installation plan.
For more information contact:
Sue Bennett
email: sbennett@friendsofthefoxriver.org

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