Mableton Elementary Students Sprout Green Thumbs

From Cobb County School District:

MABLETON, GA - Mableton Elementary School students grabbed gloves, watering cans, shovels, dirt and plants and got to work tending their garden following the official ribbon cutting ceremony for the new school garden September 9.

Third graders first serenaded the garden, parents, community members and school staff in attendance at the ribbon cutting. Principal Pamela Cain cut the ribbon as the kids cheered. One student was so excited, she hugged her teacher and exclaimed, “This is the best school ever!”

The excitement of the students working in the garden grew when they dug up bundles of sweet potatoes. The students held them high, proudly showing off their finds.

The students’ excitement matches what Principal Cain said she sees when kids are in the garden.
“Every day I look out of the windows, and we see kids out [in the garden.] We see happy faces. They are engaged,” said Cain. “They are showing things to their friends. They are getting their little magnifying glasses out and looking. They are planting. This is their garden. They are taking ownership, and they are proud of what they are doing. Not only are they out here having fun, but they are learning from it.”

Teacher Emily Garrido said she is working to integrate the garden into her first grade curriculum.

“We have been able to integrate it with our science standards, social studies standards and our reading standards,” Garrido said.

By working in the garden the first graders are able to learn about parts of a plant in the classroom and then they get to go and investigate those plant details in the garden.

“We look at the plants we have planted, and we talk about each part,” Garrido said “We get to eat each part of the plant. So when we talk about roots, we get to harvest our potatoes and get to taste the potatoes.”
The learning doesn’t stop with the parts of the plant.

“[The garden] exposes them to new fruits and vegetables that they have never tasted before,” Garrido added.
Her class picked 50 peppers one day, and some of the students got to take them home to their families.

Each grade level incorporates the garden into classroom lessons differently. For example, Garrido said third graders use the garden to learn about math arrays.

Even when insects invade one of the garden beds, teacher Sean Splawski said the students still have an opportunity to learn. They learn about the insects, and they learn about how they impact plants. Splawski, who serves as the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEAM) specialist at Mableton Elementary, sprouted the plans for the garden.

What the students learn about plants and horticulture carries over into the classroom.

“When we come in from the garden, we get to write a story about working in the garden. So it really fits into every area of the curriculum,” added Garrido.

The kids are learning, but they are also having fun sprouting green thumbs. When asked, some of the kids admittedly said their favorite part of the garden was playing in the dirt. Others cited watering and planting the vegetables and of course eating the garden’s bounty as their favorite parts of working in the garden.

“We are trying to plant seeds in our kids,” said Splawski. “So those memories do no just impact today but years from now.” We are here to teach them life experiences so they can apply it to the real world.”

Photos via Cobb County School District.