Theme: Service Learning
— Helping Kids and Communities Grow
Nurturing Literacy and Community
First grade teacher Kathy
Goodlad wanted her Title 1 (at-risk) first graders to develop
an appetite
for
healthy
foods, improve their reading and writing skills, and experience
being responsible for living things. She also suspected that
her pupils for whom English is a second language would develop
a better grasp of new words if their hands and senses were
actively involved in learning.
The Fresno, CA, school's Mr. McGregor garden became
a centerpiece for these goals, and inspired an unintended outcome. "These
kids, most of whom are from low-income families themselves,
asked, 'Why can't we give some of our garden harvest to poor
people?'" says Kathy.
"Many of my students, the majority of whom are
Asian or Hispanic, had little knowledge of agriculture or gardening,
although we live in a big agricultural area," Kathy explains.
The garden project, originally funded by grants, is now sponsored
by Home Depot, which supplies aprons, gloves, tools, plants,
and staff to help with maintenance. Each classroom — and
even the principal — in Kathy's K-6 school now adopts
a bed or row
of vegetables, from carrots to zucchini.
The children's first harvest was so bountiful that
they wondered how they might share what they'd grown. "They
considered donating it to the zoo to feed animals or creating
a garden stand and selling it," explains Kathy. But the
students' desire to help others prevailed, and they contacted
the local soup kitchen. "Delivering the donation piqued
students' curiosity about how it would be used, and prompted
some great discussions," she adds. For instance, they
decided to deliver carrots whole, rather than cutting off the
tops, so soup kitchen visitors could pitch in and feel useful.
After donating the excess produce, the class talked about other
ways they could help and agreed that from then on, they would
always plant a row specifically for the hungry.
One year, an Asian girl brought in seeds and plants
from her family's garden — long green beans, squash,
greens — which inspired a stir-fry area in the school
garden. The evolving
oasis now also sports young fruit trees, aromatic herbs, and
a butterfly area.
Language lessons also bore fruit in the garden. "I
began to notice non-native English speakers in the garden explaining
details and offering tips to other kids," explains Kathy. "And
students who were reticent writers filled pages in their garden
journals describing their discoveries." At the end of
the year, in fact, her class brainstormed all the garden-related
words they'd learned — from aphids to zucchini — and
came up with more than 160 words! "The kids are proud
of their work and more apt to eat something they've grown," says
Kathy.
© 2007
National Gardening Association