The Grade 6 class at North Memorial School in Portage la Prairie was the first to ever plant flowers in front of City Hall. 

They walked from their school to the hall and greeted Mayor Sharilyn Knox. She explained that the city placed two brand new planters out front to accommodate the addition of some beautification by their offices.

"We're just so thrilled for getting them to help make our city beautiful. They walked all the way over from North Memorial. It's the first time I've met some of them, but I'm just thrilled to work with them on this."

Principal Valerie Smith says it's part about taking pride in our community and sharing some love for it by engaging in this kind of beautification effort.

"The kids have worked really hard learning about different annuals and perennials to plant for the mayor. It's a skill that they can use in their own life and just something to be proud of when they drive by. The city will water them for us. They'll look beautiful all summer long and what better way to get to know the mayor than to do a project of pride?"

Tianna was one of the students and explains they want to show how the school supports Portage.

"We digged the holes first, then we took the plant out of the pots, and we planted them. We put them in the holes that we make."

She adds she'll be proud to show her family that she personally planted those flowers with her classmates.

Anna is another of the students and says she mostly enjoyed spending time with her friends. 

"We got a few Creeping Jennys, begonias, and a few hostas. There are certain places in the planters for certain plants. One hosta -- because they're too big --  is in middle. Two begonia plants on the sides of the hostas and in the front to show everyone. We put four Creeping Jenny's hanging over the side. When my friends, my teachers, and my classmates are all done here, we're probably going go back and I'm probably going to show my friends and family, who haven't seen it, all the flowers that we planted today."

She adds it was a lot of fun and hopes they do something like this again next year. 

Natalie Clink is a Grade 6 teacher and adds it's a fun project and the kids really enjoyed it. 

"It involves a lot of life skills; learning how to plant and we talked about planting vegetables, and planting flowers, all the things It's really authentic to actually be able to come out here and do all this with the mayor and with each other. I'd do it again. We talked about the different types of flowers for these planters, specifically. We learned about shade plants because they had to research each plant that we were planting. They voted on what we would like to plant, and then they planted it in the shade. We learned about how to plant properly. And we learned about perennials and annuals."