Lake Forest Park Elementary Third Graders learn "We Are Part of a Larger Story"

Each expert group studied and reported on one native plant: 
salal, pacific yew and evergreen huckleberry, bracken fern

This past spring, third grade students in teacher Lisa Collins' class at Lake Forest Park Elementary studied the Salish Sea region as part of their Social Studies curriculum. Working with Mrs. Collins and classroom volunteers, the students extended their learning into the community.

This expert group on red elderberry
 is planting native plants at Blue Heron Park
alongside a parent volunteer.

They learned about the indigenous history of Lake Forest Park, they learned that the Duwamish and other indigenous people are still here, they studied native plants and their uses, and they shared their learning in artwork, writing, posters, presentations, and discussions of the complexity and responsibility of studying history and caring for the environment.

In addition to all they accomplished at school, on June 6 the students walked from their school to Blue Heron Park, where they planted the native plants they had studied, with help from Cory Mattson, who works in the Community Development Department at the City of Lake Forest Park. 

Sky Nursery donated a gift card to help the students purchase plants.

The full class alongside McAleer Creek in Blue Heron Park. Cory Mattson is in the back row toward the left, The author is midway in the back row, teacher Lisa Collins is on the right.

After planting at Blue Heron Park, the students walked to the LFP Civic Club, which provided space for the students, classroom volunteers, and members of the Shoreline Historical Museum to gather. 

With David Buerge backing them, the groups
presented what they had learned.

Here, the students presented their learning about native plants. 

They learned more about Duwamish history and myth and also the present of the Duwamish people from David Buerge, who has been a historian of the Duwamish for 50 years. 

They learned that the place they gathered, where Lyon Creek enters Lake Washington, was the site of a Duwamish winter village until 1903, and they learned many Lushootseed words for the plants they studied, for the place they gathered, and other other places west to the mountains.

Students marked the migration of their own family on the world map

As the students learned about the history and present of the people and environment in Lake Forest Park, they also shared the history of their own families, and places they had lived in the last four generations to arrive here in Lake Forest Park. 

They added their family migration map to their classroom timeline from "time immemorial" to the present, and created a book of their research, art, writing, and community learning, Their book is called "We Are Part of a Larger Story."

-Elizabeth Simmons-O'Neill