At École Leila North Community School, learning comes to life in some rather novel ways: through chickens, bees, gardens, and even aquaponics. At the heart of it all is Left Eye Lisa, a one-eyed, toe-less chicken who has become a beloved therapy animal and classroom mascot. Lisa is just one feathered part of a thriving urban agriculture program led by teachers Pam Godfredsen and Ashley Taylor, whose dedication to hands-on learning has transformed their school into a vibrant hub of sustainability, empathy, and community connection. What started with a few classroom hatched eggs has grown into a multi-year vision: one egg, honeycomb, and happy chicken at a time.
Taylor, a grades 6-8 foods and nutrition and sustainability teacher, says that Lisa lives the life of luxury, going home with her over the summer and joining her family at the cabin where she hangs out on the beach or the boat. “She loves my kids and she’s very attached to them – she panics when she can’t see them.”
Building a Vision, One Egg at a Time
Lisa lives in Taylor’s classroom due to her special needs but the rest of the Leila North flock is housed outside in a chicken coop in front of the school. The chicken project began almost a decade ago. To start, Taylor would bring in eggs and hatch them to show the kids and then bring them to a farm. The plan to house them at the school would take almost seven years from start to fruition. “There was a vision that a lot of us had, and then it was just trying to find the right people to support that vision and make sure we had all the pieces in place before rushing into it,” says Taylor.
“I think you just have to have the right teachers who have a passion to do it right and who are willing to put in the extra time,” says Godfredsen, who teaches sustainability and photography and is Taylor’s main partner when it comes to the flora and fauna of the school. The two work together to take care of the animals and figure out issues along the way.
“We’ve had to figure this out and do the research,” says Taylor. “We’re constantly bouncing ideas off of each other – we have this problem, what’s the solution? We reach out to our vet, or to other people who also house chickens and figure out a plan and how to move forward.”
The chicken’s care is supplemented by fundraising, and the teachers stress that you shouldn’t have animals if you’re not fully prepared to take care of them. “Things pop up and it’s a big commitment, it’s a responsibility you have to be prepared for,” says Godfredsen.
The chicken coop was built by a fellow teacher in the division and today houses 21 hens who provide eggs almost every day which are collected and used in lessons or donated to the community.
Bees on the Roof and Sweet Rewards
The school also has three bee hives on the roof with plans to get a few more. “We want to make sure we have the resources for all the students to have these experiences. It’s really bringing learning to life.”
The honey will be harvested with the students in the fall. “We’ll usually lay out plastic bags outside and then scrape the honey off of the frames,” says Godfredsen. “So the students are quite involved. They get to see the structure of the combs, they can smell it. And they’re super pumped to taste the honey comb as well.”
Bees will make honey from the flowers and plants available nearby, so each hive in the city makes its own ‘neighborhood honey’ that tastes unique to the location. “The honey we have here is completely different from the honey I have at home,” says Taylor. “It’s a different color, and it’s got different flavor notes.” The honey that’s collected from the hives is gifted to students or guests.
One new project this year that Taylor and Godfredsen are excited about is having an observation hive at the school. “So in September or maybe even June we’ll go up and pick up a couple of frames of bees, we’ll put them in the observation hive and then we’ll bring them downstairs. And the students will be able to watch the bees working or moving about in the hive,” explains Taylor.
From the Coop to the Classroom
The chickens and their eggs lend to a lot of lessons in the classroom, from sustainability to biology, and beyond. The two teachers say their courses blend well together when it comes to working with the animals, and they’ve also created chicken and bee kits for the library to help teachers incorporate the learning into any subject area.
“There’s a lot of crossover to other classes like math or art. Pam might be teaching chicken anatomy in her class and then the kids will come here and they’re working with the eggs and making French Toast and I can ask them questions about how the eggs are laid and circle back to a lesson that Pam has done.”
When students learned to tell if an egg is fresh or not, it sparked a conversation about refrigeration and how some countries sell unrefrigerated eggs. “We have a variety of students from a lot of different places at our school and it’s neat to tie that into the lesson,” says Godfredsen.
Taylor and Godfredsen say that the students respond well to the animals. “I had one kid who wasn’t as engaged at the beginning of class so it took me a little bit to reach him,” says Godfredsen, “and now every class he asks me to go see the chickens and collect eggs together.”
The teachers have hatched their own chickens but warn that you have to be prepared and have a plan when hatching eggs. “One year we had about 57 eggs to hatch and most of them ended up being roosters,” laughs Godfredsen. “We can’t keep roosters here so you need to have a plan to rehome the birds you can’t keep.” The two have also hatched turkeys and guinea fowl and say that the students find it very interesting to see the different eggs and chicks.
Godfredsen remembers a special chicken named Connie who used to travel with her to other schools when she taught chicken keeping. “She used to ride in the passenger seat beside me and then I would just carry her in. We had the kids sit in a circle and I’d bring her favorite snacks and the kids could pet her and learn about her.”
Taylor is quick to point out that not every chicken has the same personality. “Some of them are sociable and want to be around you, and some want you to stay away. So it’s a good way for kids to learn about those social cues. Lisa doesn’t like to be touched, she’s cool hanging out by you but that’s all she wants. Just like not everyone in your class wants a hug or wants you in their space.”
The chickens are let out of their coop most days if it’s not really cold out and Godfredsen says that students will sit out there all through their lunch and hang out with them. They’ve even learned to corral the occasional escapee back into the enclosure. The community around Leila North also visits regularly and keeps an eye on the coop when school is out and having them involved over the years has been very helpful.
Community Connections
“We consulted with the community before we added the bees, and we recently started a chicken email (“the chicken hotline”) because we had some problems with vandalism in the past. So now we have an email where community members can reach us quickly if they notice something is amiss, or if a chicken got loose,” says Godfredsen. “The community cares about them, they visit them or bring their kids to see them. The community is an important piece to whether these programs are successful.”
In addition to the chickens and bees, the teachers also have aquariums, including an aquaponics system. “I’ve got tilapia and a catfish in there and it’s basically a cyclic system that works together with plants,” says Godfredsen. “We did house plants this term so the kids learned propagation and to grow their own plants which they can then take home to their parents.”
Leila North also has a garden that they share with the fire hall next door who help water it during the summer. The garden includes vegetables and flowers which are planted by the kids and visited by the bees and also provide extra treats for the chickens.
In the summer the school hosts a free food giveaway every Tuesday including bread through Second Harvest, produce and the chicken eggs they collect from the coop. Community members will also bring excess produce from their own gardens. “We’re really trying to send the message to share what you have, rather than going to waste.”
“We know food prices are crazy,” says Taylor. “We have the capability to grow stuff in our yards so if you have excess, share. What’s nice is that our students have access to Second Harvest, to the gardens, the chickens, the bees and they’re taking that information and bringing it back to their home and sharing it with their families.”
Sharing Inspiration and Knowledge
If all of this sounds like a lot of work, it is, but the two teachers stress that you have to love what you do. “It has to fill your passion and make your heart happy, absolutely,” says Taylor.
“What we explain to people when we’re doing our presentations is that you have to have the right people,” says Godfredsen. “You can’t have people that are like ‘I don’t feel like going out today’. Because even when it’s super cold in the winter we’re there, sometimes twice a day, checking on them and making sure they’re okay. You also need people who will fill in for you when you’re gone.”
Taylor and Godfredsen have presented about their projects at MTS PD Day, and will do so again this fall. They’re also available to answer questions for anyone thinking about starting similar endeavours at their schools.
– Originally published in the Spring 2025 issue of the MB Teacher
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Matea Tuhtar is a writer/photographer for the MB Teacher magazine and the Media Communications Specialist for The Manitoba Teachers’ Society.