Learning Gardens!
We are excited to share a Sign up Genius link with you!
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0848A5A829AAFFCE9-50182088-summer
This will enable an easy look, sign up and pop up reminder in your calendars for volunteers to nurture students' learning Garden space over summer.
We all know how fast those pesky weeds can grow and we really don't want them choking out all the students' hard work planting vegetables to harvest in the Fall and plants for our bees to do their buzzy work over the next couple of months.
We would very much appreciate any help/hour of your time that you can give to come on down and (water mains breaks permitting) water our garden and pull some weeds! Bring your friends, kids, and make a picnic afternoon of it, play on the agility playground and shoot some hoops!
Learning Gardens
Belvedere Parkway's Learning Gardens were first created and constructed by BelPark's parent Council back in 2017. They have been an authentic and invaluable support to student learning ever since! Students learn hands on, about the importance of balance in our ecosystem, life and nutrient cycles and adaptations of plant and insect life. More recently we added bee hotels to the mix, affording students the opportunity to look more deeply at the differences in pollinators and their importance in our eco-system.
Here's what's buzzing at BelPark!
Fall is here and our solitary leaf cutter bees are hard at work laying their bee eggs. They chomp out small leaf circles to make cocoons. Here is a very short clip from Alberta Bee Council showing a leaf cutter bee in action. https://m.facebook.com/ABnativ.... Check out this link for more information about these extraordinary pollinators. https://www.buzzaboutbees.net/...
Bee City School
Belvedere Parkway School is the 'First Bee City School in Alberta!' We received official recognition from the director of Bee City Canada, Shelly Candel. Students were thrilled with the opportunity to share their hard work, knowledge and enthusiasm with trustee Trina Hurdman and Shelly when she flew in from Toronto to present the Bee City Canada School certification.
Pollinators are one of the most fundamental blocks of our eco-system and solitary bees, such as Mason bees, are 85% - 95% more effective than honey bees in pollinating flowers and plants. Their role is crucial and significantly overlooked.
Students and their teachers Mrs. Gillon and Mrs. Mang hope to attract these bees to settle beside the Belvedere Parkway Learning Gardens where students plant, nurture and share a variety of vegetables and plants every year as part of their school program enrichment. Parents and School Council are an important part of the support for this work and are also excited about the addition of solitary bees to our learning landscape.
Grade 3, 4 and 5 students' Eco Leader Project 'If we build it, will they come?' spear headed the work around building homes for solitary bees and other pollinators and planting local and indigenous flowers and plants to attract them to the Belvedere Parkway Learning Gardens. That project was shared at the Mayor's Expo in June 2019.