Kindergarteners Think Spring and Wait for Pink Flowers
Post date: Nov 26, 2012 6:59:16 PM
For most, springtime is a much anticipated season of renewal with flowers blooming and trees budding. But with a Maine winter and heating bills looming, springtime is probably not foremost on people’s minds in November.
However recently, Wells Elementary School kindergarten students had a bit of anticipation for spring when they planted tulip bulbs. Not just ordinary tulip bulbs, but ones that will yield a vivid display of pink blossoms for breast cancer awareness.
Since 2003, kindergartners have been planting tulips in the school’s courtyard. What they planted year after year rose in the spring as tulips of varying colors. In some years they also planted daffodils, alliums, crocus and hyacinth.
This year, the Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA), the group that has purchased bulbs for student planting in the past, decided to purchase tulip bulbs from the Maine Cancer Foundation’s Pink Tulip Project, a campaign to raise money for the organization’s Women’s Cancer Fund.
For better part of an hour on the afternoon of the 14th, eighty plus students left recess or class to walk in groups across school grounds to an area near the school bus exit adjacent to Route 109. This spot is landscaped with bushes and large rocks. Once there, students received some brief direction on planting and then were each handed a bulb to place in a pre-dug hole.
“The kindergartners love to plant their bulb in the fall and look for it to bloom in the spring,” said Foley about a previous year’s outing. “They all remember where they planted ‘their’ bulb.” Next April, when they and passers by on Route 109 glance over at this area, they will find almost 100 pink tulips looking back.
Assisting students this year were WOCSD Resource Coordinator Maryanne Foley and class volunteer Jen Moore of Moody. Moore’s daughter Ellie was one of the students who participated.
Caption: WOCSD Resource Coordinator Maryanne Foley holding up a tulip bulb for a group of kindergartners that will emerge in the spring as a pink colored flower.