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Grade-Schoolers Get Help With Butterfly Garden

Klint Lowry/SUNCOAST

Gilbert, left, and instructional assistant Phillip Sheppard prepare to take the final step to the completion of a butterfly garden at Gulfside Elementary school, the installation of a concrete bench created by their students. Gilbert describes for students and faculty of both schools how the installation will be accomplished.

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By KLINT LOWRY | The Suncoast News

Published: February 3, 2009

Updated:

Harmony was the order of the day last Wednesday at Gulfside Elementary School, as a new butterfly garden was officially declared open.

The transformation of a nondescript patch of land just off the school parking lot into a place of beauty and contemplation - and a butterfly hang-out - was an example of students learning to work with nature in a way that was beneficial to both sides.

Perhaps less profound, but still gratifying to those involved, it a was a demonstration of harmonious effort between grade school students and high-schoolers, as the autistic class from J.W. Mitchell High School, in Trinity, was called in to add one of their specialties to the project.

At Wednesday's dedication, students and staff from both schools took advantage of a brief window of opportunity in an otherwise cool January to celebrate their combined effort.

The Gulfside students designed and constructed the butterfly garden from scratch. Students, with help from parents, spent a Saturday clearing a patch of ground, leveling it off in preparation for layers of topsoil and mulch.

Fifth-graders did online research to find a variety of plants that could thrive in the area and would attract butterflies. While the garden was being planned and developed, fourth-graders nurtured butterfly larvae, getting a biology lesson in the process as they observed every stage of the metamorphosis cycle.

In the end, the students were able to release 33 painted lady butterflies into the garden.

The intention in creating the butterfly garden was to create an environment in which students could read and write or just sit and think while surrounded by nature. It was a long, multifaceted project that was still missing one important component: a place to sit down and enjoy it.

For that, the folks at Gulfside turned to Mitchell High school's autistic class. The program, for students ages 14 to 22, combines academic classroom time with life skills and occupational training. Last year, the class perfected the process of fabricating and installing concrete benches, several of which now enhance the Mitchell campus.

For his students, practice makes perfect, said Jack Gilbert, who teaches the autistic class at Mitchell.

Autistic students thrive on repetition, so once they've learned something and repeated it a few times, they have it down cold, he said.

The high school students do all the calculating and designing, build the molds and pour the concrete. They also installed the bench posts, also made of concrete, reinforced with rebar. From conception to completion, the bench represents about a month's work.

Gilbert saved the final step for the dedication ceremony - installing the bench seat to the posts.

This gave Gilbert the chance to introduce some of the Gulfside students to the process. He allowed a couple of the kids to grab a trowel and spread the mortar that would hold the seat to the posts.

He also was able to show how construction is also mental work.

When the students arrived, there were several poles resting above and below the bench seat in a crisscross pattern. The slab weighs about 240 pounds, Gilbert told them.

There aren't too many people who could lift it and set it in place on their own, he told the students, who collectively agreed that was a reasonable statement.

But if three people lifted it together, that's only 80 pounds each. Dividing the weight among eight people would yield 30 pounds apiece - and that would be a breeze.

Once the bench was in place, a sign was installed greeting future visitors to the butterfly garden.

That segued to the ribbon-cutting, and a celebration that they had all played a part in leaving a positive mark on their school people will enjoy for years to come.

Klint Lowry can be reached at 727-815-1067 or klowry@suncoastnews.com.

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