Sandersville students growing their lessons

Author: Tammy Lane • First Posted: Wednesday, August 19, 2009

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Fifth-graders have picked squash in their new garden. They're also growing corn and beans.

Fifth-graders have picked squash in their new garden. They're also growing corn and beans.

Fifth-graders have picked squash in their new garden. They're also growing corn and beans.Students broke ears of corn in their "three sisters garden," where corn, squash and beans grow well together.Kids took turns harvesting their produce and lined it up in the grass.Each grade chose a theme for their garden, such as herbs, native Kentucky plants and salad vegetables.The kindergarteners' flowers were in full bloom the first week of school.First-graders used small rakes to loosen the soil in their salad garden.Children glued lettuce seeds onto paper towels to make planting easier. Then they covered the paper towels with a layer of dirt.A little dirt in your sandals is to be expected when gardening.

With blooming flowers and plentiful vegetables springing up in their new gardens, students at Sandersville Elementary have discovered the wonders of planting tiny seeds and harvesting basketfuls in return.

Digging in the garden is also teaching them to work together in small groups and giving them tangible experience with the life cycle of plants.

They realize now that the food they eat doesn’t just come from the grocery store, said Valerie Cornett, the Sandersville writing specialist and project leader.

She supervised Tuesday afternoon as fifth-graders tended their burgeoning plot – picking good-sized squash and breaking corn.

The students stepped gingerly, careful not to crush the winding vines, and snapped off several ears – even if it wasn’t quite ready.

“We’re thinking of cooking them, like in cornbread or corn pudding,” said 10-year-old Zian Black. “I might bring some peaches from my granny because she has a whole tree.”

Zian and his fellow fifth-graders planted a “three sisters garden,” based on a Native American practice.

“The corn will grow in big stalks, the beans will wrap around the corn, and the squash will have big leaves and keep the area nice and moist and shady,” said classmate Rebeccah Camuglia.

Nearby, peppers, tomatoes and chives flourished in the second-graders’ salsa garden, and basil grew in the third-graders’ herb garden. The kindergarteners’ zinnias looked healthy, and the fourth-graders’ native Kentucky plants thrived. Insects buzzed steadily around the milkweed, bee balm and purple coneflower.

Late last spring, most classes decided on their garden theme, added rich soil to their newly built raised beds and tucked in their seeds. The first-graders, however, went outside just this week to plant their lettuce, radishes, carrots and onions.

Students began by gluing seeds to paper towels, which were sectioned off in squares to space out the plants. Then they laid the towels on the beds and gently covered them with a layer of dirt.

“When it grows and it’s time to pick, we’ll come out here and pick it and put it in a salad,” explained 6-year-old Conner Pelfrey after his classmates took turns loosening the soil with small plastic rakes.

The kids aren’t the only ones with big plans for their gardens.

“The teachers can go out and show the construction of a plant or pull up a weed or talk about how weeds compete for sunlight and soil and nutrients,” Cornett said.

In math class, students could go out into the gardens to measure the height of a certain plant. Youngsters also could practice kitchen skills, measuring ingredients and making salsa with their produce.

Parent volunteers tended the gardens throughout the summer, stopping by to water and weed. Megan Hayden, who has a daughter in first grade, also helped with guided tours on orientation night the week before school started

"The kids have worked really hard, and it looks really good out there,” she said. “I hope they come out with a love for gardening and look back and feel proud of the work they’ve done.”