School's flower beds help teach growing lessons

Volunteers from the Tellabs company build three raised flower beds at the Innovations International Charter School on Jan. 19. The men volunteered their time as part of a team-building exercise while they were in Las Vegas attending a national sales conference.laura emerson/view Advertisement

The Innovations International Charter School was abuzz with activity on Jan. 19. Just inside the chain-link fence, volunteers were building three raised flower beds for the students' use.

On the opposite side of the grass, kindergarten through second-grade students participated in activities related to the flower bed construction. The young children planted seeds in small containers, learned the names of vegetables in a mix of foreign languages and studied the life cycles of plants.

"The goal is to make this an outdoor learning experience," Principal Connie Malin said.

Once finished, Malin wants the campus' grassy area to have a butterfly habitat and a place for the school's desert tortoise to live, as well as a garden where herbs, flowers and vegetables will be planted.

"It's really cool," 7-year-old Kyrah Lee, a second-grader, said. "We get to plant and then watch it grow."

Malin plans to incorporate science, math, English and reading lessons into the garden's use.

"Children learn best if they are actually involved in the learning process," Malin said.

Once the vegetables are planted and able to be harvested, the principal wants her students to make a salad with their homegrown produce.

"I think it's really good, and I hope the whole school thinks it is, because these people are working hard and really good," 6-year-old Noah Malin, a first-grader, said.

The volunteers came from Tellabs, a company that provides broadband service to communications networks providers. The men, who live out of state, were in Las Vegas participating in a national sales conference. Their company, with the help of Impact 4 Good, paired them up with the charter school as a team-building exercise. Impact 4 Good acts as a middle man of sorts to partner organizations that need community help with those who want to lend a hand.

"This is the essence of what this school is really about," LeAnn Putney, governing body president and director of research for the school, said.

Putney explained that the original idea of the Innovations International Charter School, 1600 E. Oakey Blvd., was to bring in outside people to give children a sense of what lies beyond the campus doors.

"To see it come to fruition is amazing," Putney said. "The kids are so excited."

The research director also said the school always is looking for more community partners to help out as public speakers or lend their talents to help the campus.

"It teaches the adults as much as it teaches the kids sometimes," Putney said.

Malin echoed Putney and said that it gives a chance for the students, their parents and members of the community to work side by side.

She also said that when people give back to the campus, it gives her students a special form of education that they can't receive in a classroom. They learn to be good citizens and of the importance of giving back to society.

For more information about Innovations International Charter School, call 216-4337.

Contact View education reporter Laura Emerson at lemerson@viewnews.com or 380-4588.