PS84

The lower school playground area and garden has been transformed by a true community effort. This month we completed the first phase by planting the winter plants that were generously donated by Jungle Design. Please visit the lower school area to enjoy the planter boxes and sit on one of our new benches!

Check out the long list of people who helped us out along the way:

1)  We won a grant from Build it Green for 240 feet of untreated reclaimed cedar wood.

 2)  A group of parents (especially Andrija Djordjevic) built benches and boxes out of the wood!

3)  We got a grant from Caster City for 24 casters.  At this point we had very rough boxes and benches.

4)  In October, some more parents came and helped sand the boxes and put the wheels on.

5)  A super neighbor of the school, landscape designer Benjamin Landers, gave us lining material to line the boxes.

6)  Steve, our indomitable custodian gave us the gift of soil and mulch, and even took us to Home Depot in his truck to pick it up!

7)  Build it green gave us compost and threw in a persimmon tree for good measure.

8)  Parent Marie Pesquet donated sand (thanks to Mathieu for bringing it over)!

9)  Jungle Design gave us loads and loads of incredible plants!

10) THEN! 11th Street Workshop gave us paint to use to paint the boxes and also donated ANOTHER beautiful bench.

11) Finally, a parent bought a Larch Tree, which is very Dr. Seuss-esque and just so fantastic.

We are nearly there.....here are the final steps.........

Come Spring, each K and PreK class will paint and work on a theme for their respective box. Some themes being discussed are Habitat boxes, Herbs, Pizza Box ,etc..(more to follow!) A big thank you to the teachers who have/will make this a part of their curriculum.

We will need parent volunteers to assist the children on those "painting" days.   We will also need to sand, paint and varnish the 11th Street Bench AND build a wooden container for the Larch Tree.   Please contact Jasmine if you are interested in helping with any or all of these mini projects.

Should be a lot of green fun and something to look forward to in 2013!

Molly Findley, Jasmine Astronomo and the Garden Committee

Thanks to Parent Heather Langsner, PS 84 is the proud recipient of the Grow to Learn NYC Mini-Grant.  We will get $2000.00 to use toward our school garden.  PS 84 beat out 42 other applicants!

This grant was made possible by the Grow to Learn NYC program.  

If you visit their site, you can learn how creating a garden is the first step towards the ultimate goal -- teaching students and helping them learn through the unique activities of building and maintaining a school garden. 

The benefits of a school garden include:

A change in eating habits

Improved academics

Connection to the environment

Fighting obesity

Promoting physical activity

A change in attitudes toward learning.

Congratulations to Heather - thank you so much!

Glad to announce that through the efforts of parents Molly Findlay, Stella Metzner and Jasmine Astronomo, PS 84 has just won a grant from Build it Green NYC!.

We will receive 240 linear feet of reclaimed scaffolding boards to be used in our continuing greening of the school - in this case, probably in our garden areas. 

Build it Green NYC! collects old scaffolding and through their BIG!Blooms grant program, makes it available to school gardens.  As they say on their site:

"Ever wonder what happens when the ugly scaffolding in front of your favorite corner store comes down? Well, after the scaffolding has been used for construction purposes, it is retired and sent to a landfill. Build It Green!NYC saw an opportunity to help divert the wood from the waste stream and provide free materials to local gardens...

BIG!Blooms began last year, and has already diverted 3,000 boards of scaffolding lumber to be used as raised garden beds, tree guards, and compost bins for local community and school gardens".

Great news and thanks to the parents who made this happen!