Oak Ridge School’s Ultimate DIY Project – a Greenhouse!

by Kristin MacDonald, teacher- Oak Ridge School

Students at the Oak Ridge School have built a greenhouse!

Throughout the school year ,students have been working bit by bit on the greenhouse. To begin the project in October students brainstormed and researched greenhouses creating lists of facts and wonderings they had about greenhouses. Then, each grade level took responsibility to take the idea of having a greenhouse at Oak Ridge and turn it into a reality.

Third graders explored places for the greenhouse to be built on our school grounds. Fourth graders made posters to put around our school and community to collect the water bottles we needed to build our greenhouse. Fifth graders wrote letters to people and businesses in our community asking for assistance with our project. Sixth graders organized all our research and ideas by taking the data from our charts and finding the top ideas for each topic like “ways to get water” and “plants to grow”.

Throughout the winter months students counted, cleaned, cut, and bagged the donated water bottles getting them into bags of 100. When we were awarded a Cape Cod Five Educational Grant, we were able to order the bamboo and wood we needed to build the frame of our greenhouse. In April students began construction on the greenhouse. In class they each threaded bottles onto bamboo rods creating our walls and roof piece by piece. Peter Mann, our Art & Music teacher, constructed the wall and roof frames for our greenhouse.

On our Second Community Action Day on Earth Day about 20 volunteers helped to assemble the greenhouse. We are now working on supplies to help us get our greenhouse up and running. Our GoFundMe campaign will buy us the shelving and other supplies for our greenhouse.

We would like to thank the many generous people and businesses in our community who have helped our greenhouse project. Coca-Cola Bottling Company donated large bins for us to collect the bottles. Gallo Ice Arena, Forestdale School, Sandwich STEM Academy and high school, Sandwich Fire Department, Thanksgiving Run at Wing, and Compass Athletics allowed us to collect bottles at their locations. Many families donated their water bottles as well. The Cape Cod Five awarded us a grant for our building supplies. Russo’s Landscape donated the gravel for the base of our greenhouse. Scenic Roots gave us soil, seed trays, and seeds to get us started. Peter Mann spent many hours designing and building the greenhouse. Without our volunteers on the Community Service Day we wouldn’t have been able to assemble the greenhouse. Thank you to all the people in our community who stepped up and helped this dream become a reality.

We look forward to using our greenhouse to educate our students, give back to our community, and help those in need. If you would like to donate to our greenhouse project visit our GoFundMe campaign at https://www.gofundme.com/22arhms.