Poinciana garden
Thursday is always a special day of the week the kindergarten class of Joanna Campanile and Janell Matos at Poinciana Elementary School (PES). Kindergarteners don their aprons and slide on their gloves, ready to get to work in the early morning sun. This is a hands-on learning experience for students that didn’t exist a year ago.
Campanile and Matos always noticed PES had flower beds, but they hadn’t been used in a long time. The same for some old logs. It gave the teachers an idea—a repurposing project.
“We figured, we have the resources here,” says Campanile. “What’s better than learning with hands on experiences?”
After receiving a grant through Champions For Learning, the class began the garden. The original goal was to give students an opportunity to see flowers grow in their natural habitat, instead of in a cup in their classroom. In a few short months, it’s grown a lot bigger than they first anticipated.
The garden now has lettuce, carrots, kale, peppers, pumpkins, pineapples, cucumbers, onion, peppermint, and strawberries—just to name a few. Kindergarten classes recently enjoyed homemade pesto, created using garlic and basil picked straight from the garden.
Students were involved throughout the entire process. They helped spread soil, move dirt, and plant the original batch of seeds. Now they are assigned different tasks like watering plants or pulling weeds and are learning about why it’s necessary. They journal about the experience, sometimes writing about what they see, or draw pictures.
Soon enough, the garden had tons of visitors and a few unexpected ones of the insect variety. They quickly realized they had an opportunity with their new friends and dedicated a row of the garden entirely to butterfly weed and flowers. The life cycle of a butterfly is part of the curriculum for many grades, and students have enjoyed seeing eggs, baby caterpillars, and butterflies in the area. Right now, the garden is filled with chrysalises that will eventually hatch into butterflies.
These teachers realize that young minds will be curious—many students have never seen caterpillars or chrysalises up close and personal before. They asked for some help from the school’s fifth grade Pelican Ambassadors who monitor the garden every morning. The Ambassadors can explain metamorphosis to curious students and make sure the insects are kept safe.
As you can see, the garden is filled with learning opportunities for students of all ages, even ones with unique circumstances.
“We realized it was going to be helpful especially for the English Language Learner students,” Campanile says. “They can learn words, but when they actually get to see the word, smell it, touch it, we’ve noticed it makes a big difference.”
With the school year coming to an end, the teachers received an additional grant to continue the garden with a new batch of students. This year, the kindergarteners planted a batch of pumpkins that take about a year to grow. When they’re ready to be picked, Campanile and Matos will give them to each first grade class so the former kindergarten students can see what came of their hard work.