Pine Hills Elementary School

Pine Hills Elementary School began the year 2007 in its newly constructed building and opened its doors to students on January 3, 2007. Pine Hills has a diverse population of 300 students in PreK-5th grade. The school community is thrilled to have a lovely new building and the students and staff are happy to have an opportunity to use what outdoor space is there to create an extension of the classroom. In the fall of 2007, some classes planted red Emperor tulip bulbs as part of the Journey North program.

They also set up bird feeding stations during the winter but, unfortunately, did not attract any birds. Hypotheses have been made as to what went wrong and another attempt to attract birds will be made again next year. 

 The entire school celebrated Earth Day 2008 by cleaning up the schoolyard and planting bushes from an urban wildlife packet obtained from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Pitch pine seedlings were also planted which would have been the tree native to the area long ago.The Green Team, composed of a parent, principal Ms Sanders, faculty, and students, is the coordinating force behind Earth Day and Celebrate Urban Birds.

Counting Birds at Family Field Day

Pine Hills Celebrated Urban Birds as part of its Family Field Day on Thursday, June 5. Family Field Day is a traditional event at the  school where the students and their family members enjoy parachute games, bounce on Mr. Bouncy-Bounce, and have races.

This year a bird-watching station was added to the Family Field Day at the newly planted butterfly and bird garden. This new station let participants observe, count and sketch birds, nests, and feathers. 

Pine Hills' in-house bird-watching expert, Ms. Lamkay, helped participants to identify birds in flight and by song and call. During the event, several species of urban birds were spotted. Pigeons were seen roosting on the roof of a three-story firehouse-turned-theater a block away from the bird watching station. Robins, crows, starlings, and sparrows were also seen in the grass and trees along a parking lot nearby. Cardinals made occasional appearances on the wires above the group and a flock of chimney swifts were seen flying overhead. Ms. Lamkay even pointed out a hawk or possible peregrine falcon that was circling high above.

Pine Hill's art teacher, Ms. Rhatigan, sketched birds with the students as they rotated through the bird watching station. The kindergarten students, complete with oak tag decorations, provided a musical element with their song "Rockin' Robin". Pine Hills Elementary School plans to Celebrate Urban Birds at future annual Family Field Days!

Butterflies and Birds

With the mini-grant obtained through the Celebrate Urban Birds! program,  Pine Hills has been developing a butterfly/bird garden. It has begun with the planting of shrubs and flowers that both attract birds, butterfly larva, and butterflies and would have been native to the area in the past.

Before	After

More than one hundred years ago, the site of Pine Hill Elementary's building was part of the present-day Pine Bush, an inland Pine Barrens ecosystem. Because of this, some of the native plants that are being grown are New Jersey tea shrub, little bluestem, stiff-leaf aster, butterfly weed, butterfly bush, ironweed, dotted horsemint, wild lupine, and wild columbine.

The woodland sunflower seeds from the Celebrate Urban Birds! kit have also been planted. Students have been helping with the planting and for many this has been a fun first-time gardening experience. The day before the Celebrate Urban Birds! program, the Pre-K students released painted ladies butterflies in the bird/butterfly garden. One of the butterflies was spotted later during the Family Field Day celebration.

The Arts

The Art Teacher, Ms Rhatigan, has been doing bird-related art projects with a few classes. The fifth grade made beautiful watercolor panels of northern U.S. birds. Student artists used the bird focus cards that came with the BirdSleuth curriculum for their design.
 These photos show the process of Pine Hill's fifth grade artists.

Our third grade students made bird sculptures with Ms Rhatigan.  These photos show our third graders proudly displaying their bird figures.

	Using Crayola Model Magic air-drying clay, tempera paint, feathers, and a plastic bottle for the base, students made lovely 3D bird figures.

We have installed a nesting box in our butterfly/bird garden. Student members of our PHES Green Team are checking to see if we have any occupants yet. We will keep you posted!

Finished Garden, taken in August '08

See how the garden bloomed!  Lots of nice blossoms and seeds for birds! What a beautiful garden, in just a few short months!