As winter officially approached, WES Kindergarteners planted for spring

Post date: Dec 09, 2019 8:34:2 PM

On November 15th, kindergarten students with some parent volunteers at Wells Elementary School momentarily looked beyond the approaching winter to springtime and the blossoming of the tulip or daffodil bulb that each was about to be handed to plant in a rock garden bordering their school’s playground. It’s a scene that has played out annually at WES since the fall of 2003.

Shortly after lunchtime, about 115 kindergarteners emerged from school one group at a time to do the planting. Assisting them, and kindergarteners like them for the past 16 years, was Community Resource Coordinator Maryanne Foley who was assisted this year by parent volunteers Tina Eaton, Megan Tetu, and Rachel Morris. Foley, who organizes this annual event, first spoke to each group of students about the nature of bulbs and planting them in the holes that the volunteers had pre-dug. As in past years, the bulbs were purchased by the school’s PTSA.

"It's sometimes difficult for kindergarten students to understand that they have to wait until spring to see any results,” observed Foley. “One little boy wanted to stand by his hole and ‘wait’ for the bulb to grow. (There is) no immediate gratification with bulb planting!" Foley added.

A small group of kindergarten students at work burying tulip and daffodil bulbs at Wells Elementary School on November 15, 2019. At right is Megan Tetu, a parent of a kindergarten student.