On Wednesday, October 21 students in the fifth grade at P.S. 83 planted daffodils near the front of the school’s annex in remembrance of the victims of the 9/11 tragedy.
The planting was part of the New Yorkers for Parks Daffodil Project, which has given away daffodil bulbs every year since the 9/11 attacks to volunteers willing to plant them in public places around the city.
P.S. 83’s students participated in the project this year and in previous years since the project began in 2002. Students were told that a floral company in Holland has donated half-a-million bulbs to New York City to be planted every year in remembrance of victims lost to the tragedy.
“The students learned that the bulbs are planted every year as a symbol of hope, and to beautify New York City,” said fifth- grade teacher Julia Feaster. “It started off outside of the World Trade Center site, and in the past eight years the daffodil project has spread all around. The daffodil was made the city’s official flower in 2007.”
Feaster said that the lesson about the planting also included a civics component about how volunteers give of their time to beautify the city.
P.S. 83 literacy coach Linda Collins said that Daffodil Project provided a teachable moment where the students could express themselves and learn English and Language Arts.
“We have had the students write daffodil poems in conjunction with the project, and back in 2002 when the project began we had some students write an article about it in the school paper,” Collins stated. “We can tie this into what we are doing in the curriculum in terms of learning reading and writing.”
