One local school is turning to a natural, if not unconventional method, of dealing with overgrowth in its backyard.
Kettle Moraine School District's Magee Elementary has a long tradition of preserving its 20-acre natural landscape and incorporating that into the educational experience. But recently educators added goats into the mix. About 50 of them graze to take care of the overgrowth and eat invasive species of plants.
Magee Elementary School teacher Rob Suhr thinks it’s added a lot to the curriculum.
”We thought this would be a great opportunity to expose kids to goats and learn about our environment,” Suhr said.
Third through fifth graders have made the goat project part of their broader seminar research, and now they are serving up what they learned to other area students.
It was a natural according to teacher Christie Luedtke.
“The kids are learning about the importance of taking care of the Earth and they’ve really taken to this,” she said.
But without question, these goats were the highlight for students.
Fifth grader Natalie Miles expressed appreciation.
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“I feel like it’s a privilege. I feel like it’s something that we have (that’s) unique because not a lot of schools have goats, so I feel proud,” she said.
Andrew Worden, a fourth grader, loves feeling special and said, “ I haven’t heard of any other schools in the district or anywhere that has goats.”
The goats are expected to get their work done in 10 days to two weeks.
