By Traci Newell

Jo E Hu/Town Crier Emma Korobkin investigates a garden bird box.

Amidst an open playing field lies a nature-filled oasis where children have an opportunity to connect one-on-one with the environment. The oasis is the Oak School Creative Play and Educational Garden.

The garden was the idea of Environmental Volunteers member Vicki Moore. Environmental Volunteers provides services that focus on natural science to local schools. They take the children in Santa Clara County schools on field trips.

“We try to get them to relate to their own surroundings and have an understanding of the importance of the natural environment in their lives,” Moore said.

Moore thought it would be a good idea to bring nature into the schoolyards so children can connect with nature on a more regular basis.

The garden at Oak is set upon a hill and is about a 1/4 acre. A path cuts through the garden providing a place for children to meander through the different native California plants.

“The idea is a place for kids to play that provides a more natural, wild type setting,” Moore said.

In addition to being an activity place for children, with its sand box and play area, the garden serves as part of the children’s education. Moore and additional parent volunteers help teach students about plants and other inhabitants of the environment through different activities.

One of the activities is “Who is my habitat?” The students match an animal to a plant or vice versa. Plaques placed throughout the garden include facts about plants and how they relate to the native wildlife.

Eagle Scouts placed the plaques, just a small portion of the volunteerism it took to make the garden a reality. The PTA partially funded the garden with a $17,000 contribution. Various support groups sponsored different aspects of the garden and raised an additional $14,000.

“If it wasn’t for the generosity both of individuals giving their time and labor as well as area companies, there is no way this could have happened,” Moore said.

It took nearly two months to build the garden. The nature club at Oak, which meets every Wednesday at lunch and every other Thursday after school, helps to maintain it.

A new greenhouse was just installed, and students are planning a spring fund-raiser. The first batch of plants will go on sale today after school.

Oak has initiated a partnership with the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society. The school is hosting eight bird boxes, six of which make their homes in the redwoods lining the playing field, and two of which are placed in the garden.

So far this spring students have found two nests, and children participating in the garden club will continue to monitor the bird boxes.

Moore said that Huff Elementary School in the Mountain View-Whisman School District, located in the same area, participated in the bird-box program last year and attracted bluebird eggs.