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The nature of play School sensory garden helps teach students about world around them BY KAILYN LAMB KLAMB@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
A small preschool class runs along the gravel paths in the sensory garden at Sewall Child Development Center. One boy shouts that he saw a grasshopper, another chases after a flying bee. Moving on to an area with mulch, the class begins to look for creepy crawly bugs hidden under tree stumps. In the year the garden has been open, the benefits to students, staff and even the community, have spoken for themselves, said Heidi Heissenbuttel, president and CEO of Sewall, which served 667 students total during the 2018-2019 school year. Sewall serves students aged 2.5-6 onsite, and offers toddler and infant outreach programming to 47 locations. The center offers inclusive education for students of all learning abilities and also offers developmental diagnostic and evaluation services. “(The garden) really gives the children access to the outdoors and natural learning environments,” she said. “The effects of that seem soft, but you can’t even measure that.” The sensory garden space was always part of the Sewall property, 940 Fillmore St., which also houses the REACH Charter School. What was once a .3-acre patch of weeds is now a colorful area filled with native plants where children can use all five of their senses. The colorful buds are perfect for sight and smell, while mint and a small cherry tree allow students to taste. Enclosed by a tall, vine-covered fence on the East 10th Avenue side of the property, the garden provides children with a quiet refuge, allowing them to take in natural sounds — or escape loud classrooms. Soft plants
SEWALL CHILD DEVELOPMENT CENTER
Sewall Child Development Center is celebrating its 75th anniversary in the community. The fall session starts on Aug. 19. Sewall serves students aged 2.5-6 onsite and offers toddler and infant outreach programming to 47 locations. The center offers inclusive education for students of all learning abilities and also offers developmental diagnostic and evaluation services. The school is located at 940 Fillmore St. For more information on the school and its programs, go to https://www.sewall.org/. like lamb’s ears bring touch into the garden. The school added a planting space in the playground to bring more physical touch into the gardening curriculum. “It allows them to interact with plants in a way that maybe they wouldn’t do if they weren’t queued to,” said Lee McCoy, a therapeutic horticulturist with the Denver Botanic Gardens. “It’s a really neat model for a school.” Several Botanic Gardens staff members from the botanic garden have students at either Sewall or REACH. Those parents helped with planting some of the garden there, McCoy said. The Botanic Gardens also has its own sensory garden area. There’s a shaded meeting area where the nonprofit hosts some horticulture therapy classes as well as summer camps. Signs in its garden help direct visitors to what each plant is meant for, whether its sight, touch, sound, taste or smell. The Botanic Gardens space is also fully accessible to people in wheel chairs, McCoy said. Some plants on a rope-system can be lowered for people to touch and interact with. “I think that’s one of the things, too, as a horticulturist that’s been tricky — at least initially to adjust to — is that sensory gardens are meant to be SEE GARDEN, P7
Deantra Stead holds up a beetle he found in the sensory garden at Sewall Child Development Center. The sensory garden opened for students last year, and allows children to not only see nature, but touch and taste it as well. KAILYN LAMB
THE BOTTOM LINE PERIODICAL
“I can get in and out of any route and that’s one thing I’m just really trying to incorporate into my game.” Courtland Sutton, Broncos wide receiver on training camp | Page 13 INSIDE
VOICES: PAGE 8 | LIFE: PAGE 10 | CALENDAR: PAGE 9 | SPORTS: PAGE 13 VOLUME 92 | ISSUE 39