The Reading Garden

Our plan

Our school had an unused concrete alley between the school and the playground. At lunch, some students did not want to be in the rowdy playground but had nowhere else to go. While talking to the principal about projects parents could raise funds for, the idea came up to put a planter and bench in the alley so students could read quietly outside during lunch recess if they wanted. We wanted to encourage reading, encourage contact with nature, and give students who wanted it a quiet refuge on school grounds.

What we did

We found a partner in New Yorkers for Parks, who helped us design and build a garden with planters that could also be used as benches, and a small stage with a blackboard behind it. Local elected officials contributed money. Parents, teachers, and students tended the garden. Eventually it was used as an outdoor classroom, for poetry readings and lessons including reading, drawing, and horticulture. It became a community space used several times a year for PTA receptions. The Reading Garden also made connections between reading and planting: volunteer reading tutors planted tulip bulbs with their students in the fall, promising to make reading skills bloom by the time the bulbs flowered in spring.