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PHOTOS: Students at Crystal River Elementary ‘spruce up’ their school

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Julianna O’Clair
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Ben Sherman with Roaring Fork Outdoor Volunteers helps students in Ms. Berry's second grade class plant perennials in Crystal River Elementary's pollinator garden during "Spruce Up Your School" day on Wednesday, May 13, 2026.
Julianna O’Clair/Post Independent

Crystal River Elementary School was busy Wednesday, May 13, for “Spruce Up Your School” day, a cumulative project led by second grade teachers. Second graders, who spent the year studying pollinators, created a bee hotel, performed educational skits, cleaned up school grounds and helped expand the school’s pollinator garden with support from local organizations. Students also worked with the Carbondale Clay Center to create a ceramic tile mural honoring pollinators and the day of community action.

Second graders Asher (left) and Liany plant a coneflower in Crystal River Elementary’s pollinator garden on Wednesday, May 13, 2026.
Julianna O’Clair/Post Independent
From left to right: Anthony, Kiara and Liliana act out a skit about pollinators in Ms. Mary’s second grade class. Students learned the skits with help from TACAW staff to build and express their understanding of pollinators in a creative, dynamic way.
Julianna O’Clair/Post Independent
Second grader Cora digs a hole for the Blue Fescue grass about to be planted in the pollinator garden on Wednesday, May 13, 2026.
Julianna O’Clair/Post Independent
Second grade students Caroline (left) and Vinn help Shannon Muse, a volunteer from the Carbondale Clay Center, install a mural honoring pollinators outside of Crystal River Elementary on Wednesday, May 13, 2026.
Julianna O’Clair/Post Independent
Second grade students each painted a ceramic tile in honor of pollinators like bees, ladybugs and butterflies. The collection of tiles is now a permanent mural commemorating pollinators near Crystal River Elementary School’s main entrance.
Julianna O’Clair/Post Independent
Two of Ms. Mary’s students, Kiara (left) and Carolina, show off the rooms they made for a bee hotel. The hotel was later hung in a tree near the school’s pollinator garden.
Julianna O’Clair/Post Independent
Students in Ms. Berry’s class prepare to play a pollinator dispersal game where they each try to collect the most pollen during “Spruce Up Your School” day at Crystal River Elementary School on Wednesday, May 13, 2026.
Julianna O’Clair/Post Independent
Susana Prieto-Bravo, Roaring Fork Outdoor Volunteers’s youth education coordinator, helps students in Mrs. M’s and Mrs. Stahl’s second grade classes plant in the pollinator garden during “Spruce Up Your School” day.
Julianna O’Clair/Post Independent
Finn (left) and Bodie help Ms. Mary, their second grade teacher, hang a bee hotel in a tree next to the pollinator garden. Students in Ms. Mary’s class helped make the bee hotel by rolling paper to create “rooms” earlier that morning.
Julianna O’Clair/Post Independent
From left to right: Frankie, Luana and Fernando act out a skit about what living things need to grow in front of the rest of Ms. Mary’s second grade class on Wednesday, May 13, 2026.
Julianna O’Clair/Post Independent

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