Getting outside and eating nutritious food is a challenge for many of the students at my school. Some of my students don't know the difference between a green bean and a pea pod. They don't know that the food they eat comes from plants that grow in gardens and on farms.
My students are a robust and diverse group of in-town 4th graders.
Our school is located in the center of a small urban area in Maine. We are a high poverty school with almost every one of my students receiving free or reduced lunch and coming from a single parent home. Access to a back yard in which to play or garden when they go home is not something my children are able to experience.
The idea for this project started when I came to school dressed up as a farmer. I brought in a bag of carrots from my home garden to celebrate the completion of a Thanksgiving writing prompt. The students wrote a persuasive essay begging me, Farmer Dunn, not to eat them. They were turkeys!
As the children sat sharing their writings, which were quite hilarious, I passed out whole carrots for them to nibble on. They were in awe by the size, color, and flavor of the carrots. They loved them! Of course the dill dressing helped with that first bite.
My Project
As we sat sharing and eating we were talking about carrots and I was amazed at how few students eat them and knew they grow from the ground. Even fewer of them knew that the carrot part that we eat grows under the ground! So we suspended our carrot tops in water and over the next few weeks we watched them grow. They were so curious about this and each morning it was the first thing they came in to watch.
It became clear to me that not only do many of these children not have access to nutritious vegetables but they also don't know where these vegetables come from or how they can grow their own. So the school yard garden project began.
We have 2 raised beds that were constructed by volunteers.
For our students to use this garden we need tools and other resources. The garden will provide a living lab for science explorations as well as reading/writing, math, social studies, art, and phys ed. One goal is for students' families to sign up to bring home a bag of veggies each weekend. Included will be simple, recipes that go with the vegetables that the students research. Gardens make good things grow, including children.
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