Over the summer I enjoyed a month with my grandsons who are assistant Grow Managers for their family garden. They posed so many important questions and monitored the garden so carefully I decided growing a garden would be a great experience for my 5th grade/Inner City classroom.
My future students (school starts in 2 weeks) are largely inner city/apartment dwellers who attend a Title I school.
The school will be enjoying a new Principal this year who is a first time Principal. She encourages her teachers to try new and innovative ways to help the students grow both academically and personally.
By growing a garden I feel the students will experience responsibility (personal development) while watching all the different stages of plant growth (Science). Instead of reading about soil retention and plant growth they will be able to see every stage of growth. I plan to graph (Math skills) the growth of the plants which will include both measurement, graphing and comparison. Upon harvest of the garden products I would like to have the students make a healthy meal (Health and Science) and enjoy "the fruits of their own labor.
My Project
My students will actually see the stages of plant growth and be able to take ownership in a finished product. As a child of rural America I was always responsible for keeping a section of the family garden free of weeds, picking the matured vegetables and assisting with the canning. With this responsibility I learned about erosion, plant growth, pollination, healthy diets and preservation of vegetables. I use those lessons as explanations and would like to take it one more step and allow the student in my classroom to experience first hand. My students need the wagons requested in order to move the mobile garden in and out of the classroom.
For the students in my classroom success and responsibility are the keys to changing the direction their life may take.
By growing a garden and being able to enjoy the success first hand a green plant could change a student expectations and possibly their career choices. In addition, in the state of Florida 5th grade students are required to participate in standardized Science testing for the first time. Actually experiencing growing a garden should increase retention of this skill area.
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