Gardening project sows seeds of learning at Story Elementary

By BETH FOLEY
The Palestine Herald

PALESTINE December 02, 2007 12:57 am

— With her students gathered around her in a small flower bed, Teresa Carnell removed a pansy from its packaging and held it where all could see.
“What are these white things?” she asked, flower turned upside down where all could see the dirt interlaced with white strands.
About a dozen voices eagerly shouted, “Roots!”
“What is this?” Carnell continued, pointing toward the plant’s stem.
“The stem!” students replied.
After a few more questions and answers about how the plant’s parts worked to obtain food, process it and grow, Carnell, a third grade math and science teacher at Story Elementary School, turned her students loose to plant their own pansies into waiting holes in the small bed outside one of the classrooms in the school’s third-grade wing Friday morning.
Nearby, other third-grade teachers were doing the same, reinforcing lessons about plants begun inside with hands-on planting outside up and down the outside walls of the third grade wing.
It was a dirty job, with a lot of third graders glad to do it.
“I really think it was fun,” 10-year-old Sarah Dickerson said after she finished. “We get to hang out with our friends, plant plants and get dirty.”
Classmate Keaton Braden, 8, excitedly agreed.
“It’s fun getting dirty,” he said. “You don’t get in trouble for it, and you get to spend time with your friends. I like digging big holes.”
Hannah Bassett, 9, said the project sounded fun when Carnell introduced the idea to her class.
“I thought it would be exciting,” Bassett said. “My grandma and I used to plant plants. It’s something really fun to me because I get to be outside and get dirty.”
The project came about after Carnell and three other Story teachers received $50 grants from the Pionette Garden Club.
Carnell asked Cindy Barta, her teaching partner, if she’d like to have her class join Carnell’s in planting flowers outside their third-grade classrooms’ windows. When Barta readily agreed, they asked the other third-grade teachers, then got parental involvement — including a $100 donation from one and use of a tiller from another — a large donation of plants and supplies from Lowe’s and expert advice and help from the garden clubs.
“We had two days before Thanksgiving (set aside) and we decided to take them (the students) outside,” Carnell said. “All the teachers wanted to do it.
“Mrs. Barta had a grandparent, Jim Parsons, who did so much. One of the other garden clubs jumped in with both feet. We had a couple of parents — Yaupon Garden Club members Lloyd and Evelyn Davis — who stayed all day.”
What began as just a plan to plant however much $50 would cover for flowers and supplies mushroomed into several flats of pansies, snapdragons and decorative cabbage, as well as daffodil and tulip bulbs.
Carnell even convinced her mother, garden club member Pat Fox, to don her gloves and work clothes to help the students, teachers and other parents and garden club members weed and plant around the flagpole and front entrance to the school during the two days prior to Thanksgiving.
Teachers blended lessons on plants and planting into their Thanksgiving curriculum to give students a little different perspective on both through making bird feeders, reading about the Pilgrims and Indians, playing Pilgrim games and doing math fact relays with Pilgrims and Indians.
With so much to plant, the project continued when school resumed after the holiday, but it’s gone well, Carnell said.
“In class, we talk about ‘this is the stem, these are the roots.’ But when you put it in their hands and you use the language, it makes it real,” Carnell said. “They’ve really, really enjoyed this.”
For students like Keri Spivey, the project has been their first foray into gardening.
“It was kind of a new experience for me,” Spivey, 8, said Friday. “It’s fun. I even got dirt in my shoes.
“At first I thought it wasn’t fun. I had to bend down, get in the dirt and get muddy. But it’s really fun. I like doing it.”
Her friend, 9-year-old Paris Nickerson, also learned to enjoy the gardening.
“It’s fun when you put your knees down and get dirty,” said Nickerson, who had been taught a little gardening already by her grandmother. “She taught me a lot about flowers. I sort of like it because you get to plant different types of plants and water them. I like different colors of flowers.”
Eight-year-old Jake Neal found out there was more to it than he expected.
“I figured we would be planting for the whole time but it was not,” he said. “We did other stuff, too. I learned how to plant different plants.”
Even those who work in gardens at home enjoyed doing some planting at school.
“I plant lots of stuff because I live on a farm,” Breydon Tune, 9, said, explaining that he plants corn, tomatoes and other vegetables and flowers. “It’s pretty fun. I do it lots of times at my house. I have fun when I do it.”
Seeing the community get involved with helping students learn hands-on is something Story principal Larrissa Loveless likes to see, and wants to see continue.
"What makes this such a dream situation is the community collaboration," Loveless said. "Without community support, we'd never be able to do this."
Another positive for the project is its inclusion of all students, regardless of their skill level. Everyone in third grade, including special needs students, had their chance to dig in the dirt and learn how to handle plants and care for them, Loveless said.
Besides the obvious lessons in gardening and plant life, something has taken root, she added.
"It gives them a sense of pride in their school, and that's a big deal," Loveless said. "That's not just for the students but also for the community members who contributed, and the parents."
The gardening project will continue in the spring as the bulbs begin to send up shoots and then bloom. Other grades also plan to get involved, she said — fourth graders may plant next week, and an idea to have fifth graders build rain barrels to provide water is being discussed.
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Beth Foley may be contacted via e-mail at bfoley@palestineherald.com

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