Submitted by Peggy Knock of Sacred Heart Villa.

About two weeks into the school year, the preschoolers at Sacred Heart Villa noticed and discussed that, “Tiny Tot Land has no plants, that’s sad.”

The children were right. All children at Sacred Heart Villa explore the natural elements surrounding them on the campus and in the neighborhood.

However, there were few plants for the toddlers to explore on their playground.

Fortunately, Litzsinger Road Ecology Center had just posted a list of available natives and a Litzsinger Road Ecology Center educator was due to visit our school.

The PK2 kids got to work. They assessed the Toddler playground. ”It’s Sunny”. They looked at pictures of plants that were offered in a catalog and picked out ones that would grow best in full sun.

The teachers arranged for a day to plant so the Tiny Tot Land would have Missouri native plants. The preschoolers and teachers managed to involve six classrooms in creating a community planted, beautiful garden for the toddlers.