This past week, we tried something new to help us bridge lessons in the garden to those in the school classroom. We spent the days in the garden with King’s Counseling Enriched Curriculum (CEC) program, which is made up of students who, for a variety of reasons, do not thrive in mainstream classrooms. In previous years, we have trickled the CEC garden classes into our regular schedule, but we decided to experiment with a week-long immersion to see what would happen.

We began our mornings in the garden with regular garden classes: we turned five huge heaps of compost and cultivated a long bed in the back of the garden and planted it with beautiful broccoli plants from the greenhouse. After our garden classes, the ESY garden teachers joined the CEC students for their physical education classes. We participated in several student versus staff basketball games; while we looked to our sub-par garden footwear as an excuse for losing, there is really no other way to say it: we got schooled on the court.

The CEC immersion integrated well the work we do in the garden with the students and the work they are doing with their classroom teachers. Each student completed a research project on a relevant garden related theme such as compost, worms, ladybugs, mushrooms, plants as medicine, chicken care, and potato towers. Their mission was to create a poster that included facts, quotes, photographs, and written paragraphs about their topics, as well as an oral presentation on their theme. Students completed research in the classroom with the help of the garden staff and their dedicated teachers and aides. Aside from researching their themes through books and the internet, students were able to understand their topics through hands-on application. For example, a student who was researching plants as medicine got to familiarize himself firsthand with medicinal plants we have growing in the garden such as calendula, mint, and lavender. Another student who was studying worms was able to get up close and personal with worms as he was cultivating during garden class.

The week culminated with students presenting their research projects to their peers, teachers, and some family members out in the garden, followed by a pizza party that CEC students created. They harvested, washed, and prepared fresh toppings from the garden, mixed ingredients for the pizza dough, and built and cooked incredibly delicious pizzas in our wood-fired oven. We were all able to celebrate the CEC students’ hard work in the garden and on their research projects by enjoying pizza and salad together in the ESY kitchen classroom. Overall, the CEC immersion week was a great success and with a little bit of fine tuning, we plan to repeat this same program again year after year.

Turning compost

The bed we cultivated together         The finished bed of broccoli