In Diane Shoemaker’s business class, Springs students in sixth grade are going outside to garden in the school’s greenhouse. The students are taking care of the garden by planting and watering the beds.
The business class runs during the fall and spring semesters, the best times to grow plants. Some kids are assigned a job like watering or sweeping the dirt off the floor.
“I like watering the beds because it is satisfying,” said Novella Dunham.
To keep things organized, Ms. Shoemaker assigns groups of students to take care of specific beds. Each group has approximately four students in it. Kids are growing green beans, albino peppers, spinach, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, zucchini, beets, and radishes. In addition to growing vegetables, the students have flowers in separate pots near the vegetables beds. This is important because flowers help with pollination.
Using a program called Google Slides, each student is making their own greenhouse manual about all the things they are learning and the different requirements for making plants in a greenhouse thrive. The topics in their manual include things like how worms help the garden and soil and the importance of using natural fertilizers.
Students in sixth grade aren’t the only ones helping out. Some prekindergartners have been using the greenhouse with their teacher Meghan Lydon and art teacher, Morgan Bock. They’ve been making clay planting pots with Ms. Bock, who also comes outside with some of the younger students to work alongside one of the sixth-grade classes.
By Reagan Taylor, Grade 6