TAG students from left to right, fifth graders Jadyn Lawrence and Ryder Herron, and sixth grader Ryan Lucas, spoke to kindergartners and first graders about the trees they planted.

Jadyn Lawrence, Ryan Lucas,  Ryder Herron and TAG teacher Mrs. Tawni Ellis stand next to one of the maple trees the students planted on the west side of the Rock Port Elementary playground on Arbor Day.

By Jadyn Lawrence

This year in the  Rock Port elementary T.A.G program (Talented And Gifted) Jadyn Lawrence, along with Ryan Lucas and Ryder Herron, worked on a project called The Tree Project in which we planted two trees: a sun valley maple and an autumn blaze.

You may ask, what all did you do leading up to planting the trees? Well, let me tell you. First around August/September 2018 we researched projects we wanted to do and we decided on planting  trees. To start, we had to decide what were some things that we have to look out for like, how many trees do we want? Where do we want them? When’s the best time to plant them? Do they make a mess with helicopters (seeds)? How big are they? What’s the best climate for them? Etc. After we got all the answers it was time to pick the trees. We wanted something that was pretty in the fall, does well in all climates, does not make helicopter seeds, and involves a small amount of maintenance. The trees we had picked did not reach some of those expectations and were out of price range. But, luckily our teacher, Mrs. Ellis told us that the Ellis family had donated two trees and they met all the expectations. So, we were able to meet the goal of planting trees in the spring. In April 2019 we called 811 and found out we were allowed to dig. So, we planned to plant our trees Arbor Day, 2019. The day before Arbor Day we dug two holes on our playground and were ready to wake up the next morning and finish a project we had been working on all year.

Some reasons why we planted the trees is because  we had limited shade on our playground and so during hot days every kid would be piled up under the trees playing and fighting over the swings in the shade or the area in the shade. Another problem was no one would play on the playground on hot days because the metal would heat up and burn kids’ hands.

So finally finishing our tree project was a very exciting experience knowing that we changed our community for the better.

Jadyn Lawrence, 5th grade,

Rock Port Elementary