Schools
Palos East Students Helping Bees with Seed Planting Grant
Caitie Sekema's 4th grade class recently received a grant from the Planet Bee Foundation to create seed balls that will help bees pollinate.
Fourth graders in Caitie Sekema’s class at Palos East Elementary School are doing their part to help boost bee populations.
Her class recently received a grant from the Planet Bee Foundation which included material for her students to create seed balls. Seed balls are natural clay balls, full of seeds and soil which are dispersed to grow plants that attract bees to pollinate them.
The inspiration to apply for a Seed Ball Stewardship Kit Program Grant came from a unit on bees that her class has been studying.
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“In the grant application I told the Planet Bee Foundation that my class was studying a unit on bees where we read about honeybees, wrote poetry, and made a beehive of nonfiction facts about them,” said Ms. Sekema. She said she applied for the grant so Palos East could join the global movement to help save bees and other pollinators.
The grant included enough seeds, clay, and potting soil to create 900 seed balls, enough to produce an estimated 9000 flowers and plants. Ms. Sekema invited all of the 4th graders at Palos East to help create seed balls which were recently planted in the school’s courtyard.
