School Garden Celebrations
School Gardens programming wrapped up the school year with a beehive of wonderful events celebrating gardening and our natural world! At the end of May, Amesville Elementary, East Elementary, and Morrison Gordon Elementary each took their entire first grade on a field trip for Sprouts, which means almost 200 students got to spend a day outside on a local farm. Amesville met at Blackberry Sage Farm, and East and Morrison Gordon Elementaries met at Solid Ground Farm. We’re so grateful to have amazing farmer-teacher-partners like Ronda Clark and Weston Lombard who welcomed such a large group of students onto their farm, and to our brilliant partners at Rural Action and Live Healthy Appalachia who enriched the day by leading field trip stations.
Each field trip day offered students the incredible opportunity to rotate through a series of different activities that engaged them in different ways. Students planted marigolds, made native wildflower seed balls using freshly-harvested clay, hunted for bugs, inventoried pond life, tested their coordination and spirit with an obstacle course, participated in sack races, played tug of war, made fruit kabobs, crafted their own seed packets, and in general got to use their whole self to engage with our natural world. Experiences like this are fundamental to our mission because they help our future community leaders learn to value collaboration and understand that healthy food depends on a healthy and diverse environment. Huge THANK YOU to the SARE Youth Educator Grant program for making these field trips possible!
Rounding out the beehive of school-based activity in May, this month also featured School Garden parties, a special celebration that kids were anticipating already in early May. We’re so proud of Molly and Abby for such an amazing school year, and so grateful to the many volunteers who pitched in to make everything a huge success!
*Thank you to Jess Fritz for taking photos at Solid Ground Farm!