Michigan Green School
We are a Michigan Green School!
During the 2010/2011 school year, Four Corners Montessori Academy earned Evergreen status - the highest certification - as a Michigan Green School!
Michigan Green Schools is a non-profit agency dedicated to assisting all Michigan schools - public and private - achieve environmental goals which include protecting the air, land, water and animals of our state along with world outreach through good ecological practices and the teaching of educational stewardship of students preschool through senior high school. Certification must be re-applied for annually.
Here are some of the goals we are meeting for certification as a Michigan Green School for this 2011/2012 school year:
- Recycling paper, plastic, glass, cardboard, metal, juice pouches, plastic zip bags, cell phones, printer cartridges, and reusing magazines and newspapers for other projects (each worth ½ Green Schools point).
- FCMA hosted a visit by “Neil the Safari Guy” in December 2011, who presented a live animal demonstration and talked about their habitats and survival.
- Establishing a natural Michigan garden project with native plants on the south side of the school entrance.
- Donating leftover non-perishable food from last year’s school lunch program to Forgotten Harvest.
- FCMA switched from paper to electronic school newsletters.
- Maintaining a Green Schools bulletin board to show what our school is doing.
- Classrooms visit an internet site where clicking helps preserve rainforest habitat and teachers document the students’ efforts.
- Teaching a unit to the middle school students on alternative energy.
- Observation of Earth Day in April (Earth Day is Sunday, April 22, 2012).
- Adopting an endangered species animal in the wild selected by our students and post a picture of one in a main traffic area.
- Students conduct a letter-writing campaign to local officials to request that city recycling pickup program service schools.
Our Native Michigan Garden
FCMA is hosting a garden featuring native Michigan perennials in the area to the right of the main school entrance. The garden area is entirely maintained by student family volunteers. The following are plants featured in this area to conserve native species and the local wildlife that they support.
American elder
(Elderberry)
Scientific
Name: Sambucus canadensis
American
elder is native to eastern North America, where it occurs in rich soils along
riverbanks and forest edges. Songbirds spread the seeds and dense stands of
elderberry are commonly seen along highways and fence rows, under utility
lines, and at the edges of clearings.
Columbine
Scientific Name: Aquilegia canadensis
Columbine
is a beautiful, native wildflower that blooms in late spring with striking red
and yellow flowers held on tall stems, and it is one of the few that is
pollinated by hummingbirds.
Common Milkweed
Scientific Name: Asclepias
syriaca
Common plant of barren fields. Very important to the
butterfly population. The blooms provide abundant nectar for butterflies and
bees. The plant itself is the larval food for the Monarch butterfly. It has a
glorious fragrance that is only enjoyed up close.
Swamp Milkweed
Scientific
Name: Asclepias incarnata
One
of the few milkweed species that grow in wet ground, this tall Asclepias is
usually found in wet prairies and meadows, woodland depressions, and stream
edges where it often may stand in several inches of water. Like butterfly
milkweed, this too is one of the showiest of the species with its beautiful,
rich, rose-purple flower color
Cut-leaf Coneflower
Scientific
Name: Rudbeckia laciniata
Rudbeckia
can grow very tall and attracts lots of wildlife, especially beneficial insects
and butterflies. Goldfinches flock to this plant when in seed.
Wild geranium
Scientific
Name: Geranium
maculatum
In
late spring to early summer, it blooms in clusters of 1" pink-lavender
flowers that add delicate color to the woodland. A powder made from the
roots was used by Native Americans to treat sore mouths. Roots were also
boiled and pounded to make a tea for toothaches and dressings for burns and
hemorrhoids. This species was also used by pioneers as an astringent and
antidiarrhetic.
Blackeyed
Susan
Scientific Name: Rudbeckia hirta var.
pulcherrima Farw
Attracts
Fritillary butterflies. This plant is a biennial - it produces a rosette of leaves
the first year and flowers in the second year.
Wild Ginger
Scientific Name: Asarum canadense L.
Each
plant produces one or two red-brown, thimble-shaped flowers that are
inconspicuously tucked close to the ground, well hidden beneath the
leaves. They are pollinated by beetles. Wild ginger spreads by
shallow underground stems that smell like ginger when they are crushed.
It was used by Native Americans medicinally as a contraceptive and chopped as a
wound dressing, commonly in food to treat indigestion, and as a seasoning.
Ohio Spiderwort
Scientific
Name: Tradescantia ohiensis Raf.
Named
after John Tradescant (1608-1662) who served as gardener to Charles 1 of England. Spiderwort grows upright on 3' stems and
flowers all summer in a cluster of 1" wide, tri-petalled, blue-purple
flowers with yellow-tipped stamens. Each individual flower opens in the
morning and lasts for just a day before turning into a jelly-like mass that
flows like a tear if touched.
Heart-leaf Aster
Scientific
Name: Aster (Symphyotricum) cordifolium
This
plant is attractive to bees, butterflies and/or birds
Blue Lupine
Scientific
Name: Lupinus perennis
Lupine is a beautiful wildflower that is best grown in full
sun and dry, sandy soils. The flowers
look similar to snapdragons and bloom in clusters that can include combinations
of white, blue, purple, and pink. This flower is insect-pollinated. Lupine also has a beautiful, deep-green, compound leaf that
adds interesting texture to the garden. It is only plant on which the
federally endangered Karner Blue butterfly lays its eggs.
