Students at Nixon Elementary School will be able to go beyond the classroom and into the outdoors with a new pond being built in their refurbished Environmental Center.
The Nixon School in Landing, New Jersey is holding a Build-A-Pond Project on April 21-22, 2006. The school, which is refurbishing it’s Environmental Center, was (will be) the recipient of a pond donated by A Frog’s Dream, a pond and landscaping company of Long Valley, New Jersey. Mr. Clay Graba, whose wife Kristina is a second grade teacher at Nixon School, owns the company. The students, staff, and volunteer parents of Nixon School will help to build this new pond in an enclosed courtyard area within the school building. They will help to dig and landscape around the pond. The second day of the Pond Project is Earth Day.
Robert Cavo, the school’s principal, says, “I am very excited about the school project and in seeing the students expand their knowledge of the environment and science.” Brian Sferra, an ESL teacher at Nixon School, is coordinating the project and looks forward to the Environmental Center as a living resource area and outdoor lab for many years to come. “It will be a wonderful thing for the students to go right outside the school doors and study life in a pond,” said Sferra; adding that he looks forward to great weather.
When completed, the center will include grass, small trees, shrubs, flower planters, picnic tables, benches, bird feeders, and a birdbath. A rain gauge, thermometer, and other weather instruments will also be installed.