by Kristin Krem, School Counselor

Cottonwood School of Civics and Science is a place-based public charter school serving 200 students ages Kindergarten through 8th grade in Portland, Oregon. In 2021, we were expanding our schoolwide SEL/Wellness program and aligning it with Placed Based Education and Indigenous Studies. We wanted to design an interconnected model of wellness and belonging for our students, staff, and community that fostered a strong sense of place. Our Indigenous Advisory board connected us with the Plant Teachings for Growing Social-Emotional Skills Toolkit. The development team, including members of GRuB's Wild Foods and Medicines Program team and Squaxin Island Tribe's Northwest Indian Treatment Center staff, built this resource with lots of care and in collaboration with Indigenous communities in the Pacific Northwest. 

Upon meeting, our teams had an instant connection and spark of collaboration. The Plant Teachings curriculum would support our work in decolonizing both education and wellness. We scheduled professional development series for our entire staff. 

Coming back to in-person classes after COVID, everyone was in somewhat of a crisis— overstimulated, and out of practice with skills needed to be an in-person community. We decided that our readings and professional development would start with just one plant, Cottonwood, for the whole first year. It was a good time to investigate our namesake and deepen our relationship with our history and our place. We started going on mindful walks, taking classes to the Willamette river viewpoint to notice our surroundings, observe the seasons, and use our senses. Students started experiencing a calm reset during the day and a moment of peace. Staff also reported loving the walks as much needed grounding moments. We were leaning on trees, the river, the plants, and the birds for co-regulation during that complicated transition. 

Professional development with the Plant Teachings team deepened this connection, bringing sparks of awe and wonder to our staff. We learned how plants operate in community during hard times. These trainings helped us pause and reflect, remember why we were here, deepen our practice, and feel comforted by the teachings of the plants. We also were able to drop into our bodies by drinking tea, smelling and tasting the plants, making healing salve, and practicing the art of noticing. We brought the salve home and brought Plant Teachings to our classrooms. We created a short video about the trainings and shared it with other schools. 

Not everyone was ready to integrate Plant Teachings from the beginning. During one of my first few lessons, I walked into a classroom with a large Douglas Fir branch and a 5th grader said, “Oh let me guess, you are going to tell us that branch represents something.” I taught a lesson about the way Douglas Fir trees adapt and how we too can adapt to changes in our environment. We passed around Doug Fir essential oil and when that student got a turn he said “wow it smells just like ADAPT!” I laughed along with students and staff, for whom this all felt like a stretch in the beginning. 

Years later in 2025, we are humming along and have incorporated Plant Teachings into many aspects of the school culture. We focus on one plant per month as a whole school, rotating through the same 10 plants each year with each class being the keeper of one plant. The students know where the plants live in the neighborhood and can keep an eye on them during the changing seasons. They teach our new students and staff about the plants. One of our teachers, McLean Cannon, collaborated with each class to write a song for each plant. A local artist supported McLean and the students in recording the songs and creating a plant teachings album! Every month, we host an assembly where we celebrate the plant and sing the songs as a community. We also host plant nights for families where we celebrate three or four plants through student-led activities, art projects, performances, and lessons related to the plant teachers. Plant nights are some of Cottonwood’s best attended events. 

The 8th grade class is the keeper of our school’s namesake and most beloved plant teacher: the Cottonwood tree. Recently, when preparing for our December Plant Teachings Night, we wanted to make paper lanterns using dried leaves but we didn’t know if there would still be leaves so late in the season. We had collected beautiful bright yellow leaves months before. We walked with the 8th graders to our schoolyard Cottonwood Tree and, despite the bare trees above, there were still some yellow/brown leaves with dark brown spots on the ground. Everyone was tasked with picking out 10 of the most beautiful leaves they could find. It was an unusual weather day for Portland— super sunny, blue skies, and a blanket of frost. The cold and grumbling middle schoolers became playful scavengers, comparing beautiful brown leaves and holding their leaves to the sun to watch the frost glimmer.

At the family night, the 8th grade students helped younger students and families make beautiful lanterns with these dried leaves. The plant teaching for Cottonwood is “Wellspring.” Cottonwood trees hold water in their trunks to use and share as needed. We all have access to a wellspring inside of us that we can tap into and share, much like a light. We had a lantern walk a few weeks later when there were no more leaves on the ground. We sang the Cottonwood song before the walk and talked about how we can share our light with our neighbors. We talked about honoring winter, nourishing our wellspring, and the cycles and movements of nature. Our school is right next to a U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) building so we asked our families to consider how we can spread Cedar’s plant teaching of Kindness and Generosity to immigrants walking by our school all day. How are we using Hawthorn’s teaching of Courage to show up in solidarity? How can we nurture our own wellbeing and the wellbeing of our community? How can we share our gifts and our lights? 

Last year we added plant teachings to our PBIS (Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports program with simplified posters and cards. We pass the cards to our students to exemplify the plant teaching of the month. For example, in October we pass out Hawthorn cards when students show courage and bravery. In February we pass out Willow cards for students who practice flexibility. When the whole school reaches our goal, we have a community celebration. As Cottonwood adopts Oregon’s new TSEL (Transformative Social Emotional Learning) framework, Plant Teachings easily weaves through our weekly lessons. We incorporate Plant Teachings in both mindfulness practices to start our lessons and in the content areas. 

Many of our students connect deeply to our plant teachers. They know the plants in their own neighborhood, collect pieces of plants in their pocket or backpack, and go deep with the metaphors between plant behavior and their lives. They’ve learned to make salve at school and now they do it at home too. Our staff reports that they feel more connected to the seasons, to our community, and to the land where we live as a result of Plant Teachings. The day collecting cottonwood leaves with my students was a gift for me and filled my own wellspring: a reminder that we can be flexible like Willow, Adapt like Douglas Fir, and find beauty in the present moment like the Wild Strawberry. 

If you want to reach out to Kristin Krem to collaborate or with questions, email her at kristinkrem@thecottonwoodschool.org

Learn more about the Plant Teachings toolkit and other educational resources at the Native Plants and Foods Institute. Find print materials including a book, cards, and posters at Chatwin Books.