FARMINGTON — Students in grades kindergarten through third at the W.G. Mallett School celebrated Maine Arbor Week on Wednesday by planting trees, flowers and herbs on the new school grounds.
They had help from teachers, volunteers and others including Maine Forest Service forester Patty Cormier. They also had lots of donations from the community to make the event happen.
Principal Tracy Williams read a list of contributors to students as they sat on the sliding hill.
It was a day to plant a variety of 30 trees — apple, red oak, blue spruce, river birch, white pine, black spruce, sugar maple, hemlock, lilac, oak and flowering crab. They also planted a variety of flowers and herbs.
Teachers learned how to plant and care for the trees, flowers and herbs before the big day.
They even had a map of where the trees were going. Each class had a job to do, and within each class, students had jobs to do.
They shoveled dirt, dug holes, hauled water, tilled soil, lugged compost and did lots of other associated planting tasks.
Williams told students the cafeteria leftovers came back as compost.
Students and staff save the scraps from food and send it to Sandy River Recycling Association, which composts it.
The big thing today is it is kind of a historic time, Williams said. Just as people did with the old Mallett School, kids and parents enjoy the grounds. Today marked the planting of the trees and students and their families can come back when the trees are bigger and maybe eat an apple from a tree and enjoy the school grounds, she said. The new Mallett School opened at the beginning of the school year.
“Let’s make it a great day everybody. We’re off,” Williams said before the groups of students, teachers and volunteers headed off with shovels, wagons, buckets and other tools.
dperry@sunjournal.com
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- Maine Forest Service district forester, Patty Cormier, left, wishes students at the W. G. Mallett School in Farmington a happy Arbor Week on Wednesday and explains that the week is dedicated to encourage people to take care of trees and to plant them.
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- W. G. Mallett School third-grader Gabbe Duval of Temple, center with shovel, digs a hole to plant an Empire apple tree as part of a Maine Arbor Week celebration at the Farmington school. Students in Sandra Jamison’s class watch and wait for their turns.
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- W. G. Mallett School second-graders, Iliana Marquez, left, and John Knapp, both of Farmington, shovel sod into a wheelbarrow Wednesday during the Farmington school’s celebration of Maine Arbor Week. Students, teachers and volunteers planted 30 trees, flowers and herbs on the new school grounds.
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- Caleb Sinkinson-Brown of Industry, left, and Alex Grimanis, of Farmington, both second-graders at W.G. Mallett School in Farmington, haul compost Wednesday to where their class — led by teacher Lisa Larrabee — was planting flowers around the new school sign as part of a planting project to celebrate Maine Arbor Week.
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- W.G. Mallett School teacher Carla Miller, standing, hands a pot of herbs to volunteer Bridget Daku on Wednesday as Miller’s students wait to plant an herb garden outside the school as part of a Maine Arbor Week celebration.
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