North Carolina Office of Environmental Education

Penny Road Elementary School (Grades K-5) is located in Cary, NC and has approximately 625 students. Penny Road Elementary is located on 25.8 acreas which includes a 1.1 mile walking trail, pond area with amphitheatre, and a wide variety of gardens.

News & Information

Penny Road wins NC Bluebird Society Grant

Penny Road Elementary School wins a NC Bluebird Society education grant. This will be used to add feeding stations, birdbaths and essential bird house assessories to our existing bluebird trail program.

Penny Road Teacher wins Environmental Grant

PRE won the 2009 NC Beautiful "Windows of Opportunity" Grant for a bluebird lifecycle project. The project will be for 130 PRE first graders for math estimation, reading and writing (journaling).

Penny Road Elementary receives 2008 AJ Fletcher Award

Penny Road Elementary School receives 2008 AJ Fletcher Award.

Penny Road Honored As A Certified NC Native Plant Garden

Age/Grade Level Served:
Kindergarten, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade, 4th Grade, 5th Grade

EE Programs:
Celebration or Special Event, Club for Students, Committee to Support School-wide EE Efforts, Environmental Service Learning Projects, Field Trips and/or Outreach Programs for Students, Professional Learning Opportunities for Teachers, Teaching Materials or Kits for Teachers

Penny Road has Fall and Spring Beautification Days for our teachers, students, families and community volunteers that have environmental activities associated with them. The Spring event has an Earth Day celebration. Classes use the walking trail, shelter area and the pond areas for environmental education courses. Since 2006, we have had composting, North Carolina Native Plants, water conservation presentations in our outdoor classrooms. In addition, students have had hands-on work with planting azaleas and creating/planting containter gardens. Ten to Fifteen teachers have been involved with Project Learning Tree.

Green and Healthy School Features and Activities:
Composting, Litter Prevention, Native Plant Habitat Restoration, Recycling (3-5 material types), Water Conservation, Wildlife Habitat Restoration

Penny Road Elementary (PRE) participates in the county-wide "Feed the Bin" program. PRE also recycles printer cartridges, cell phones and other electrical items. Every week, PRE students have walking Wednesdays, where students are encouraged to walk to school and around our track facility. PRE also has sixteen rain barrels on site. The water is used to water the US Map garden area plants, azaleas and container gardens. PRE has six vermicomposting bins that are used by the third grade classes for composting with worms.

Outdoor Classroom Features:
Amphitheater, Bird Feeding Station, Compost Bin or Area, Garden - Butterflies / Insect Pollinators, Garden - Theme, Native Plant Landscape, Nature Trail, Pavilion, Gazebo or other Sun Shelter, Picnic Tables, Benches, or other Study Sites, Stream, Creek, or Pond, Supplemental Water Source for Wildlife, Trees, Forest or Arboretum, Weather Station, Wetland or Bog Garden, Wildlife Shelter

Penny Road has the NC Native Plant garden, US Map Garden area, Azalea gardens, rock garden, and butterfly garden. In addition, PRE has a bluebird trail at our facility. We now have two bluebird houses with wireless webcams and students were able to monitor the bluebird nesting cycle. The webcams were connected to the schools cable system and every classroom could watch bird lifecycle. Students kept journals throughout the process and had to calculate the amount of time of the various cycles (building the nest, laying eggs, hatching and fledging). PRE also utilize weather stations with the science cirriculum and students measured and collected meterologic data. The pond area also has a bird blind which is used by the students to view the birds. The walking trail has educational stations throughout the path which have environmental lessons (biltmore sticks, counting tree rings, etc.) at each station.

Recognition for Excellence in EE:
2008 and 2009 NC Beautiful "Windows of Opportunity" Go Green Grant, 2008 AJ Fletcher Award, North Carolina Native Plant Certification #13, National Wildlife Federation Schoolyard Habitat Certificate #83,384; 2005, 2006, 2007 & 2008 NC Beautiful Azalea Celebration winners; PRE featured in NBC 17 "It's Your Education Segment" concerning our bluebird trail.

EE Strengths and Needs:
Our strengths are in birding (especially Bluebirds) and gardening. PRE is now getting into recycling, composting and water conservation. We could use assistance in writing better EE grants and we can always use donated plants (divided daylillies, hostas, etc.). Those with an interest in gardening are welcomed to participate in our Fall and Spring Beautification Days. Students, service organizations (boy scouts, girl scouts, Indian princess, etc.), community service (Service Raleigh, Key Clubs, etc.) can earn community service hours when participating.

Community Partners in EE:
PRE partners with Crowder District Park of Wake County Parks, Recreation and Open Space for our outdoor environmental education activities and keeping our shelter pavillion kiosk up-to-date with environmental education information. Service Raleigh provides PRE with up to fifty High School/College students to assist with Spring Beautification Day. Local middle school and high school key clubs and boy scout troups provide students to assist with Fall Beautification Day. NC Bluebird Society and NC Native Plant Society provides us assistance with grant support. Wild Birds Unlimited and Fairview Garden provides a 20% discount.

Ecoregion(s)
Piedmont (Ecoregion 45)

Riverbasin(s)
Neuse River Basin