Specialty summer camps and after-school programs for where Youth age 7 – 14
- learn about biodiversity, ecology, and earth stewardship
- Repurpose lawn into pollinator patches and meadows with Native plants, shrubs, and grasses…and bees and butterflies
Park School in Brookline, MA
For three summers (2017 – 2019), Jean Devine led a two-week Meadowscaping Club for elementary school campers at the Park School in Brookline, MA. In “Let’s Build a Meadow,” Jean guided campers through learning activities interspersed with their planting, maintaining and monitoring a 350 sq. ft. area filled with native flowers.
Campers got dirty and had tons of fun while shaping “their” native-plant meadow. The meadowscaping experience is the educational tool for presenting our unique curriculum. Campers increase their environmental literacy through activities that incorporate STEAM subjects, while the meadow and these outdoor learning activities become a window to view the natural world.
The Park School campus is environmentally significant, and adding a meadow increased the property’s appeal to birds, pollinators, and other important species above and below ground. To increase recognition of the value of the site as wildlife habitat, the Park School received National Wildlife Habitat Certification in the spring of 2018. A dedication ceremony became the opportunity for students to share their experience with a reporter from The Brookline Tab.
During the school year, MS4B staff use the meadow, garden beds, and the campus as a teaching site for Park’s After School students. While tending to the meadow and enjoying the great outdoors, students strengthen their naturalist skills as animal detectives, bird watchers, tree huggers and in other roles.
Waltham YMCA
In the summer of 2016, Meadowscaping was delighted to partner with the Waltham YMCA to present the Waltham Y Meadow Club to 2nd through 5th grade campers. Both organizations believe strongly in providing youth with meaningful outdoor experiences that empower them to be active participants in society.
The Waltham Y Meadow Club guided 120 summer campers, age 7 – 13, through an eight-week, engaging, all-outdoor curriculum resulting in a Meadow garden at the Y (2016). The program was featured on August 22, 2016, in The Boston Sunday Globe (Globe West section, page 1 above the fold!!!) with the headline “Cultivating Knowledge: Children plant a meadow at the Waltham YMCA and get a lesson in biodiversity.”
