Barnard Elementary Students show USDA Sec. Vilsack Forest Exchange Box at Year of Forests Event
Yesterday, nine Barnard Elementary 3rd and 4th grade students and I, as well as teachers Sharon McCrea, Jacqueline Bates, Geraldine Meredith, and Rashita Lowe-Watson, had the honor of attending a special reception in downtown Washington, D.C. in celebration of 2011 International Year of Forests.
We met the Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, Members of Congress, and other top officials, and were treated to the musical talents of a Rolling Stone, keyboard player Chuck Leavell, accompanied by a Capitol Hill band.
Barnard Elementary was invited to participate for two reasons. First, we are well on the way to becoming a model GreenSchool, thanks to our students and staff working in partnership with AFF’s Project Learning Tree program and the U.S. Forest Service to incorporate environmental investigations and service-learning action projects into our curriculum to reduce our ecological footprint, green our school, and at the same time meet D.C. Public Schools learning standards. Second, our school’s forest exchange box was chosen to represent Washington, D.C., and was displayed at the event alongside 50 other forest exchange boxes from every state in the nation.
The Secretary and other top public officials viewed our forest exchange box that 
highlighted students’ studies of some signature trees (representative of trees found across the nation) located around Washington’s historic monuments, as well as trees in our school’s neighborhood. As part of this project, students in kindergarten through 4th grade contributed artwork, journaling, and poetry to the box.
During a field trip, 4th grader Toya Tanner studied the Cherry Blossom Trees, gifts from Japan that symbolize friendship between our two nations. The trees around the Tidal Basin are in peak bloom right now, and visitors from all over the globe come to see them and enjoy "a parade with fantastic floats, giant helium balloons, marching bands and performers. It is an event people will stand for hours to see," said Toya.
Fourth grader, Ama Sumbry studied the U.S. Capitol’s Pecan Tree that is more than 3-feet in diameter, and has a lean. "Pecans provide food for animals and humans. Animals, such as squirrels eat pecans that fall from the tree. People use pecans as a salad topping and to make pecan pie," Ama wrote.
Mrs. McCrea’s 4th grade class collaborated on a poem about the Willow Oak.
Old
Huge
A giant of a tree
Your guide from Union Station
Standing guard on the northward side of the Capitol
listening to words of freedom.
A group of 4th graders wrote about trees in our school community. "Have you ever taken a walk in your community? Do you ever notice the trees? We have," begins their journal entry. "On our walks to school we see the huge Oak Trees lining up along the street. They remind us of crossing guards watching over us. On our school grounds, we planted trees around the edge of an open field. These trees will give us more shade when we have our field day in the summer."
"We can’t imagine living in a place without many trees," the students concluded. "Trees give us so much. They give us shade, food, wood for furniture, paper, and buildings. They help give us oxygen to live. Every tree is a Giving Tree."
And finally, here is one more inspiring contribution to the Washington, D.C. forest exchange box that caught my attention. I am so proud of my students, and the teachers that work alongside them!
A Tree Reminds Me Of…., by 4th grader Jocelyn Guadardo
A tree reminds me of climbing.
I climbed one before, one limb at a time
until I couldn’t go any further.
I will climb for my goals just like that.
Dr. Grace Reid is the principal of Barnard Elementary School, a Washington, D.C. Public School.
