Fostering our Future Awards

Partner OF THE YEAR - city of yorkville parks & recreation department

Tim Evans, Scott Sleezer, and Heather DiVerde collaborated with our Interdisciplinary Unit Design committee to help create a meaningful cross-curricular experience for our third grade students. Through their leadership, we have created a unit that shows students real-world examples of how organizations interact and affect communities in different ways, one of them being improving our community’s parks.

Students act as Park Rangers investigating how to improve our Y115 playgrounds. After exploring a variety of texts and observing our own district playgrounds, students get to go on a field trip and visit four playgrounds in our Yorkville Community.

Tim and Scott meet the students at a playground to answer their inquiry questions as well as explain the role and processes they go through to improve the playground experience. Once students return from their field trip, they will write a proposal to our district’s Faculty and Operations Department for a new playground improvement. One lucky proposal will become a reality for all Y115 elementary schools!