Lamb Mowers Visit Rolling Valley
Landscaping at Rolling Valley Elementary School in West Springfield looked a bit different this week, when lawn mowers were left in the sheds while a flock of lambs trimmed the school’s grass by nibbling it for their breakfast and lunch.
As part of the FCPS Get2Green initiative, the visit by Lamb Mowers, a local company that brings a flock of sheep to conduct traditional yardwork duties, was the school’s final Earth Week event. Every grade went outside to appreciate the environment and outdoor learning.
Projects ranged from kindergartners planting flowers, fourth graders making bee houses with recycled materials where bees can lay eggs, to sixth graders tracking birds after enjoying a lesson from an ornithologist (bird expert) about the study of our feathered friends.
“On Thursday, we learned about what the sheep can do, and how we can have alternative means to accomplish routine tasks. So instead of a lawnmower using gas or energy, there may be some outside-the-box methods that are available to us to complete work in a more sustainable way,” Principal Veronica Del Bagno said. “That is when they learned the Lamb Mowers would be coming, to show us that concept in action.”
Karen, a sixth-grade student at Rolling Valley and member of the school’s Green Team, said she had been looking forward to the lamb visit for a while. “Lambs clipping the grass by eating it is better for the school environment than lawn mowers that use gas or other kinds of energy,” she said. “I thought they were really cute – I got to feed them, they licked my whole hand, which felt weird, but it was also all very cute.”
Students and staff have worked hard all year to expand sustainability efforts at the school. Multilingual learner teachers Jennifer Marsala and Sally Milian, who double as Get2Green leads at Rolling Valley, proudly tout the school’s four separate gardens: a pollinator garden, a flower garden, a vegetable garden and a sensory garden. This year, the school also debuted a new milk carton recycling program.
“Our amazing custodian set up a bucket where kids who are done with milk can put their empty cartons into a recycling bin,” Milian said. “Without buy-in from the cafeteria and custodial staff we wouldn’t be able to pull this off. It is really a whole-school effort.”
The visit from Lamb Mowers was a fun, final Earth Week event for the students after successfully broadening their conservation efforts this year.
“We did this in the hopes that it would create some core memories. We may have students who have never seen farm animals before,” Marsala said. “There is definitely a connection to the curriculum as well. They will go back and write about this, and some will do some research on sheep. It all comes together.”
