St. Kateri | Grade 4 Students

Conservation Initiative: Gardening, Compositing & Yard Clean-up

At St. Kateri, we are very fortunate to be able to provide our students with three healthy snacks per week to help ensure they get proper nutrition in order to learn to the best of their ability. This program started after COVID were we noticed that students needed some support to maintain a healthy lifestyle. It is important to note that St. Kateri is also an Apple Healthy school. This means that our school is committed to making healthy choices for both nutrition and fitness.

This brings me to the next point, the school yard cleanup. After starting our snack program, we noticed that the school yard was getting to be a mess where some students would not place their wrappers/ snack containers in appropriate locations. On their own, some students started a cleanup squad where they would go out and clean the school yard using bags and gloves that they brought from home. With some help from staff, this group of students were both honoured in a school wide assembly and were giving a leadership opportunity by spreading their group to the greater school community. To date we’ve had over 50 students volunteer their time during recess to look after our school yard.

Finally, as part of the new grade four and kindergarten curriculum, students started a composting program and a school garden. This was another learning opportunity for our students to put their learning into everyday application by composting organic waste from their weekly snacks. Students then used the compost to help grow our school garden. To date our students have grown and eaten the following plants: Kale, Lettuce, Tomatoes, Peas, Cucumber, Beans, Swiss Chard, Peppers, and Basil as part of the school healthy eating snack program.

This Conservation Project was made possible by
Doug Warren.