Give Students a Voice!
Fifth graders design a more safe and fun playground space
The Fifth Grade Legacy project was born out of an idea that started about seven years ago at Bruce-Monroe Elementary School at Parkview (BMPV) in Washington, D.C.
During our mini school modernization (flipping the location of the cafeteria and gym) our school gardens were torn out and replaced with water retention ponds to bring our campus up to code. In the process, a void was created because all garden teaching came to a stand-still, so I started looking for a new location for garden boxes to restart the school garden program. Second graders completed an EcoRise Public Spaces Audit of all of the school grounds in 2019 and received a grant for the build-out from the Student Innovation Fund. Our school’s Director of Strategy and Logistics, Taylor Wiley, and I explored several locations. I was fixated on an unused space in the outdoor classroom. After several site visits with officials from the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) and with Xavier from Friends of the National Arboretum (FONA), we determined that the grading on a hill at the front of the school was a safer and better location for garden beds. The funds were there and the plans were in place, but everything was delayed due to the pandemic. With the support of many members of the FONA team, BMPV staff members and families in our school community, the new garden boxes were finally installed in 2021 during a full day build-out. We did it! The garden beds were in place and garden teaching could begin. Since then, kindergarten students have enjoyed planting, tending, and learning outside in the BMPV garden.
Still, the sharp drop in the outdoor classroom bothered me. Students in preK and kindergarten were always in that space at the end of the day and someone inevitably fell down or went down the steep, eroded slope and couldn’t come back up to the top. No matter how many times they were told not to go behind the wooden benches, someone needed to go to the nurse or get a bandaid because they got hurt on that slippery hill. The space was ours, but it wasn’t being effectively used.
In 2024, students in fifth grade did another EcoRise Public Spaces Audit. This time, they only surveyed the steep hill in the Outdoor Classroom to collect data and to look for trends. The fifth graders were upset when they realized how many young students were injured in that area. They determined that it wasn’t safe or fun; there was nothing to do there; and if young children got to the bottom, it was often hard to get back up to the paved path at the top. After months of brainstorming, taking measurements, drawing sketches, solution storming and selecting materials with Emilia from FONA, three projects emerged. One class planned to install a slide so young students could enter the space in a fun way. The second class wanted to put in a walking path so that children would know where to go after coming off the slide and the third class planned steps so that there were interesting ways to move through the space.
Once the EcoRise grants were received, the fifth graders were in shock. They couldn’t believe that BMPV was actually going to build out the space based on their plans. Taylor Wiley, our DSL, and Oliver Saul, a BMPV parent, collected all of the materials and worked on the build-out for months, including fifth graders at various stages of the installation process. This project is the graduating legacy of our fifth graders and a beautiful gift left behind for everyone to enjoy. Please come visit our school to see the transformation!
Sabina Malkani is the Science Teacher at Bruce-Monroe ES at Parkview in Washington, D.C. Her email is sabina.malkani@k12.dc.gov.
Wide-angle views of the newly renovated outdoor classroom at Bruce-Monroe ES. Click the photos to view in full screen.
Left: Sabina Malkani showing off the newly renovated outdoor classroom. Right: Emilia Kawashima, FONA’s Garden Manager, inspecting materials for the renovation at Bruce-Monroe ES. Click the photos to view in full screen.
