Delightfully Different

Schools: Upper Township Elementary and William H. Ross School (Margate)
Teachers: Grace Traa and Jessica Cuevas
County / Level:  Cape May and Atlantic / Elementary
Minigrant
Date: March 2026

Our first joint grant!

We have intentionally chosen non-traditional and unique varieties of plants to grow in our school gardens, many of which will be enjoyed by our students and their families.  A shared Google Slide doc will be utilized to communicate weekly updates on the progress inside each garden. 

In today’s world differences are being used to divide and target certain populations.  We are also living in a post-covid, technology-heavy time where students have lost the ability to communicate directly and effectively with others in a cooperative manner.  We believe that by bringing students into the garden, closer to each other and nature, it will literally and figuratively ground them and create more cohesive relationships with their natural surroundings and peers.   It is our goal that by exposing and celebrating these unique varieties the students will gain an appreciation of each other's differences as humans. It is our hope that students will take this new found open mindedness into their everyday lives wherever that may be.