This weekend a small group of volunteers planted about 70 trees and shrubs on the west-facing side of Langley Elementary and on the hill down to Harry Thomas park. Our community now has access to blueberries, figs, persimmons, sumac, mulberry, paw paw, pears, persimmons and more. The trees and plants will take some time to mature and bear fruit, but we can all be part of caring for them and watching them grow.
We would have loved to have a big event to help plant the trees and share information about the Food Forest with the neighborhood and community, but had to keep it super small because of COVID-19.
There will be a second phase of planting in the spring, and we hope to have a larger community event at that time. In the meantime, please check it out and feel free to do some weeding in the mulched beds! 
​A special thanks to DDOT’s Urban Forestry Division, Lincoln Smith of Forested, FreshFarms FoodPrints, and the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation (with funding from Vitafusion) for supporting the project, and to the Langley Elementary PTO and Eckington Parks and Arts for mobilizing volunteers!

Please feel free to message me with any questions.

Julia Hedlund
Langley PTO Garden & Wellness member organizing the Food Forest Project
Email: julia.hedlund@yahoo.com 
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Langley Elementary (and the neighborhood!) is getting a Food Forest! Persimmon, pear, apple, paw paw, pomegranate, fig and many other exciting (and delicious) fruit-bearing trees and shrubs will be planted on the West-facing side of the school and at the top of Harry Thomas park field. This exciting new community asset is brought to us through a partnership with the Urban Forestry Division of DDOT, Forested, the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation, Freshfarms Foodprints, and the Langley PTO.

We are seeking volunteers to plant trees and shrubs at the school on October 31 and November 1. We are making this volunteer opportunity as safe as possible by targeting our volunteer outreach, limiting the number of volunteers on site at a time, and requesting that all volunteers wear masks and practice social distancing.

We have set up a spreadsheet to help with coordinating and making sure we have enough people to get all the trees and shrubs planted. Please sign up here if you can commit to planting trees and shrubs for a couple hours (or more!) on one or both days. Experienced gardeners and arborists will be on site to provide guidance and information about the food forest, so please don’t be shy if you’re not a professional gardener! :)

Please feel free to email juliahedlund@yahoo.com with any questions about the Food Forest or the planting day. 

WOW Wednesdays with Inner City Inner Child
Beginning Wednesday, September 30th, there will be an eight-week arts program for our Early Childhood classes. There will be 2 sessions, one from 10:00 am-10:30 am and another from 1:30 pm-2:00 pm.   Links will be available on your teachers’ Canvas page.

AARP
We will begin our pilot virtual literacy tutoring program with a group of 3rd graders starting in late October.

Girl Scouts Nation's Capital
Beginning this fall Girl Scouts Nation's Capital will be offering virtual programming for our 5th grade girls so they can gain leadership experience from home. Girls can participate in 60-90 minutes of structured programming once a week for four consecutive weeks with experienced Girl Scout staff in topics of Girl Scout traditions, STEM, life skills, and the outdoors, plus activities to complete at home after program hours.
Please reach out to Mr. Carr at Dwaine.carr@k12.dc.gov if you’re interested.

Community Cares Community Does
CCCD will offer a multi-stage leadership program for our 4th grade students. Designed to inform and inspire, the program, through its volunteer experts, will offer interactive training in three core areas: (a) community leadership; (b) political leadership; and (c) entrepreneurship and business leadership. We will have our first session on October 7th at 10 am. More information will be sent out in the coming days.

Kindred Equity partnership 
Langley Leadership is looking for 10 parents to participate in our partnership with Kindred Equity. Please email Mr. Carr at Dwaine.carr@k12.dc.gov for more information.

Hispanic Heritage Month
The Inner Core team (Art, Health/PE(HPE), Library, Music) has planned a month of engaging activities to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month. In addition to hearing stories featuring Hispanic characters and culture, students will have access to virtual Hispanic Heritage Month libraries. In music, students will learn about the history and origins of the music of Celia Cruz, Tito Puente and Selena Quintanilla. During HPE class students will participate in Zumba Kids to continue to stay physically active while celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month. Finally, students will study the art of Frida Kahlo, Picasso and will take a visual field trip to Frida Kahlo's home museum "Casa Azul". For a complete calendar of DCPS virtual events, visit here.

Flex Academies
Flex Academies is offering online enrichment in a theme-based enrichment experience within a virtual setting including lively instructors-Club Captains, emphasizing peer to peer connections and fun activities that will keep them laughing and learning. Activities include arts/crafts, zoom games, book talks, math games and much more. If interested in paid enrichment  click here.