OUR GARDEN IS A SPECIAL PLACE

"It makes my heart happy and joyful because the garden is so beautiful. I like the garden because the butterflies swoop down to the flowers to drink the nectar. I love Monarch butterflies and our garden."

~Christopher, age 6

The kindergarten community planned, planted, cultivated, and harvested a butterfly and herb garden this spring. In our garden journals, we drew pictures and wrote about our garden. We counted and sorted seeds and observed and graphed the growth of our seedlings. We learned about the metamorphosis of Monarch butterflies and Silkworm moths as we raised them on milkweed and mulberry leaves growing in our garden. We experimented with planting seeds in various types of soil, learned to identify parts of flowering plants, and learned how to care for an organic garden as a wildlife habitat. Art, music, math, language arts, social studies, science, and technology are fully integrated into the thematic work that includes learning about Mexico. By providing a habitat for the Monarch butterfly that migrates to Mexico in the fall, a window of opportunity is opening to us for learning about the children in Mexico who welcome the Monarch’s return in November.

Seven years ago, two kindergarten classes broke ground for two small gardens that have been cared for over the years individually by the two classes. This spring, in honor of our school-wide theme of "community," our teachers dug out the grassy area between the gardens and transplanted the tufts of grass to bare areas of our playground, joining the two gardens and celebrating the renewal of our commitment to cooperative learning. We softened the soil with shovels, hoes, rakes, and trowels. We enriched the soil with compost and organic humus, and cared for the garden by weeding and thinning the garden as needed.

Last Fall, we invited the first grade class to join us in our garden for a harvest festival. We collected and roasted sunflower and pumpkin seeds from the garden. In the Spring, we invited kindergarten parents to a spring harvest. We collected parsley, cilantro, and dill from our garden to make a sour cream nacho dip, and collected mint to make mint tea for a special snack. Recipes were included in our kindergarten recipe book and sent home to our kindergarten families. We raised money for Monarch Watch’s Adopt-A- Classroom program in Mexico by collecting milkweed seeds, packaging them, and selling them at our school fair in the spring. In May, our garden was the site for our butterfly release. Preschoolers and pre-kindergartners joined us for the special occasion.

Taking on the role of young gardeners, we began by digging, moistening the soil, and removing rock and weeds. We collected stones and placed the stones as a border around our garden. We planted seeds indoors and outdoors under a cold frame in March, and sowed seeds in the ground in April. We transplanted seedlings into the garden. We collected lunch and snack scraps and maintained vermin-composting bins indoors and a home composting bin outdoors. In the spring, we added compost and worms to the garden. We watered the garden with watering cans and hoses. We helped preserve a mulberry tree by transplanting it. We videotaped our gardening experiences and made a ten-minute movie about planting seeds.

Our garden is a beautiful wildlife habitat that attracts small creatures and helpful insects. Our garden has a diversity of flowering plants that are the host and nectar sources to a variety of butterflies. The herbs and the sunflowers provide us with an opportunity to learn about edible plants and seeds. The garden is enjoyed for its simplicity and beauty by many in the community who visit. We have learned to care for the earth and for the creatures that live upon it. Through cooperative, hands-on gardening experiences, we have learned about the connection between all living things. Gardening without chemicals helped us create a safe, child-friendly learning environment and a healthy habitat for the living creatures.