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International Charter School
Address:
334 Pleasant Street
Pawtucket, RI 02860
US
Telephone: (401)721-0824
Email: kate@greencircledesign.net
The International Charter School (ICS) is a dual-language bilingual elementary school in which all students learn 50% of the time in English and 50% of the time in either Spanish or Portuguese. Students leave ICS with a high level of proficiency in two languages. As part of the curriculum, ICS has recently begun to build an on site school garden where we hope to promote environmental awareness and an appreciation of the natural world in our students; to provide hands-on experiences of planting and caring for a garden; to help students understand and appreciate the beauty of the natural world, from seasonality and the cycle of life, to the age old question: where does our food come from?; and to strengthen ties to our neighborhood, help to raise awareness of our school, and give students a sense of pride that they are capable of growing their own food.
Our garden has come a long way since we started! The stonework was completed in April, in time for our apple tree planting on Arbor Day. Throughout the month of May, each grade planted vegetables in their own garden plot and enjoyed sampling herbs in our herb garden. We look forward to a big harvest in September. We will be working with The Steel Yard this summer to make structures for our garden--tomato cages, a long curved bench that can seat an entire class and tall garden bollards that will protect the edge of the garden, provide support for climbing vines as well as display Steel Yard artists' interpretations of our students' artwork.
We continue to look for additional funding to allow us to build the garden structures. Please contact Kate Lacouture if you would like to help or for more information.
2007 CGN Service Award Winner
Kate Lacouture
