In a collaboration across grades and schools, students with a variety of academic and social needs were able to connect and collaborate around concepts related to pollination and ecology. The classes included a self-contained classroom for students with Autism and two general education classrooms – 1st grade and 8th grade. Hands-on activities, dramatizations of pollinator activities, and a field trip to Tucson Botanical Gardens helped solidify the vocabulary and concepts previously learned in speech therapy sessions.

As an example, students pretended to be bees on the hunt for flowers. They used Cheetos and knowledge of bees to get “pollen” (Cheeto dust) on their fingers. They then “flew” to their friend’s flower and landed, leaving behind “pollen.”

In addition, a partner school was able to take students to choose plants for the pollinator garden at Drachman Montessori. Students then worked together again to plant the new items.

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