UPDATED WITH VIDEO: Lower Elementary Students Help Restore Mangroves
During Earth Month, the Lower Elementary (Grades 1-3) students from Montessori By The Sea worked to restore mangroves along the coastline along Prospect Point Road. This environmental community effort, which took place over April 4th to 8th, was part of the Mangrove Education Project and the tireless work of the Cayman Islands Mangrove Rangers.
Under the expert guidance of MEP Executive Director Mr. Martin Keeley, the children learned how to carefully retrieve healthy young mangrove plants from further down the shoreline and transplant them to a protected area on the property of Tim and Carol Furey.
After an initial educational presentation about mangroves on the first day, the children then made the brief trek just down the road, where their lessons came to life as they learned how to remove the mangrove plants safely and transplant them into a calm salt-water lagoon. The children enjoyed working with shovels, immersing their hands in sand and water, and coming across their fellow living things, including soldier crabs, fiddler crabs, shrimp, fish and clams.
This real-life experience was not only an edifying and impactful learning opportunity for the children, rich with cross-curricular connections; it was also an invaluable chance for them to play an active part in the preservation and restoration of their natural environment.
For more photo galleries on this amazing community project, please visit the Cayman Islands Mangrove Rangers Facebook Page.
“If anyone else was wondering, should they do this? The answer is yes because I thought it was an experience that not every school or kid gets to do. So if you do it enjoy yourself and have fun!”
– P., Lower Elementary Grade 3