First Grade Vegetable Garden Giving Back to the Community

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.

My Students

Do you remember how you discovered the process of how a vegetable grows? You either planted a garden or watched it happen during a television program. I would like for my young students to discover first hand the process of how we produce vegetables by planting a school vegetable garden.

My first grade students are amazing to work with because even if they are having a hard time at home they know they are safe at school.

They open their tiny hearts to me so I can nurture and educate them. The kind of school they attend is a low social-economic/Title 1 School. Many of my students are either labeled at-risk students or Special Ed. students. At-risk students are students who are not experiencing success in school and are potential dropouts due to many factors, such as having a difficult home life, which leads to behavior issues. Several of my students are ESL and many of my students come from dysfunctional homes. In spite of all these challenges, many of my students work hard to be successful and try their best. They deserve the best education possible. Please help me help my students.

My Project

My state provides the seeds and cylinders to create a vegetable garden. I am requesting 8 packs of soil to help the plants grow 2 sets of garden tools to help create the garden, and 1 Green Living Curriculum Package, which has a program that has visuals which will help my students better understand what their expectations are for the garden. The Literacy Growing Garden book set will help with the interest level in reading nonfiction books about what we will see happening in our garden. This will influence my students to create their own vegetable garden books. Lastly I am requesting four tablets. With these tablet I can form project groups. The students will be able to record data, make graphs, take pictures of their garden. Then they will go on campus websites to create vegetable garden posters, as well as to create a garden video. Once our garden produces vegetables, my students will learn to give these vegetables to our community as well as create a salad.

My job each year in first grade is to teach my students about the life cycle of a plant and the importance of soil.

It is very difficult when you do not have funds for the resources to provide hands-on learning. This project will help not only my students but five more first grade classes as well. This project will give the students a sense of pride and responsibility. I strongly believe all the students at my campus will benefit from the work of the first graders.