News

Hillandale teacher wins grant to plant 'Reading Garden'

By Lightning Reports, Published: April 18, 2016

Hillandale Elementary School teacher Rebekah Pace received a $2,000 grant from educational sorority Alpha Delta Kappa to create a Reading Garden inspired by “The Secret Garden” protagonist Mary and her desire to “have a bit of earth with which to grow a garden.”

“Students will be encouraged to take ownership in the planning and implementation of this Reading Garden, thus fostering student leadership roles,” Pace said.

Approximately 620 K-5 students will be involved in the creative process from start to finish, from brainstorming and voting on what they want the finished Reading Garden to look like, to designing a layout, to working with the land and other resources to build and construct their vision, Pace stated in her grant request.

The interdisciplinary Reading Garden will integrate reading, writing, math, social studies and science; students will read about the types of plants and architectural elements they would like to incorporate into the garden, use writing to create the plans and request resources, use math and science to measure how far plants can be from one another and what plants grow the best in different soil types, and use social studies to research what plants are native to our area.

“Through a partnership with director Bullington Gardens Director John Murphy, Hillandale students will be able to get hands-on learning opportunities in horticulture and natural sciences both on and off-site in preparation for the Reading Garden,” Pace said.

The $2,000 from Alpha Delta Kappa will be used to purchase materials for the garden, including trees and small plants, a pergola, seating, and decorative elements. Pace’s grant request was first submitted to the Henderson County sorority chapter, North Carolina Alpha Upsilon, and then to the State Scholarship Committee, which annually chooses one grant winner in the state of North Carolina.

Pace is planning a Reading Garden groundbreaking ceremony at the end of the 2015-16 school year and a ribbon-cutting in the spring of 2017, when the garden is in bloom and ready for readers.