The Kiwanis Kids (K-Kids) Green Team at Bridgeway Elementary held its first-ever pumpkin smash on Nov. 8. For the week after Halloween, the community was invited to drop off carved and uncarved pumpkins to the school. The purpose of the event was to reduce food waste. 

The after-school club members and staff climbed up ladders and smashed the pumpkins to make compost for the Bridgeway garden and the community. 

Bridgeway Elementary has six food garden beds in front of the school and the students prepared them before the event in order to create an outdoor STEM lab. The garden beds now have pumpkin pieces of various sizes, shapes and thicknesses so students can compare and contrast the speed of the decomposition process. 

Bridgeway Elementary School administrative intern Leslie Jones was selected as a recipient of the 2022 Emerson Excellence in Teaching Award. The annual program recognizes St. Louis area instructors, selected by their schools’ administrators, for their accomplishments and dedication to their students and the teaching profession. Jones received an engraved crystal apple from Tiffany & Co., along with additional prizes.

Bridgeway Elementary School was recognized as a 2022 Missouri Green School honoree for its commitment to improving health and wellness of students and staff, lowering environmental impacts, and providing place-based education. Bridgeway is one of 17 honorees and one of 10 that achieved Sprout level recognition by involving school administration, beginning to benchmark and track improvement, and setting goals toward further advancement of green and healthy practices.

Each October, Missouri Green Schools (MGS) recognizes schools for initiating and maintaining green practices on campus and in the community. Jeanne Fernandez, reading specialist at Bridgeway, submitted the school’s garden for the award.

Recently, the garden space has been improved by painting benches, installing a little library, gardens that have been planted by students and other events that have encouraged recycling and reusing and overall community engagement and involvement. The garden has been a community project, with students, staff and families helping make improvements. The process began in 2019 with pollination. Since, Bridgeway has added a sensory garden and, this past summer, a food garden.

“Bridgeway will be working on sustainability projects this year to teach students, staff and the community to live more sustainably at school and at home,” Fernandez said. “The projects will be led by our K-Kids Green Team, a year-long after-school club for fourth and fifth graders that focuses on the importance of caring for other people, animals and the environment. This is an incredible opportunity for those students to develop knowledge, critical thinking skills, leadership skills and motivations for action as they learn and teach our school and community just how connected we all are to one another and the earth. Sustainability education encompasses all school subject areas and isn’t just healthy for the environment, but for each of us as well.”