Mrs. Moore has recently started a gardening club during 10th period at Chittenango high school. Plants offer a lot of great benefits for humans. They improve the air quality, boost our mental and physical health by reducing stress and anxiety, and support our ecosystem. This sounds great, especially for an environment like a school where students almost spend their whole day studying different subjects.

After looking at all these positive effects that plants bring, we are really excited about Chittenango’s brand new gardening club, Bear Roots. Mrs Moore had been spending time with the exceptional learners gardening in some of their periods in the past and thought it would be a great opportunity for all the other students who would like to spend time outside, planting or just meeting new people and working on projects together. In the past some retired teachers have discussed making the court yard “prettier” which is a project she now wants to work on for the future. Together with the help of Mrs Rooney, Mr Linehan, and Mrs Alex who would like to start some indoor planting in the library to be ready for spring, Mrs. Moore started the club with about a dozen students.

One of the projects the club is planning for this year is to plant some seedlings to be ready for warmer weather that can then grow into vegetables and flowers. These could then be sold to have some money that could be invested in future projects. Thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Duffy who donated gloves and a lot of other tools, the club already has a great base to start from. Mrs Moore, who taught at Canastota high school before she came to Chittenango, would love to see outdoor classrooms at Chittenango. There students and teachers could have some of their classes outside, instead of spending all day in the school building. Many studies have already looked at that phenomenon and pointed out the positive effects these classrooms could bring. Maybe that would be a project Chittenango high school could think about for the future.