Just before Spring Break, we had been focusing on our garden, the worms that make compost and the tomatoes that are turning red. This is our second year with our Little Green Thumbs garden and how we approach it this year has morphed with the students. This year, the students had a say in what we were going to grow. They needed to use persuasive writing to convince their classmates what we should grow. From last year, they knew that we made treats from our garden bounty (tomato and basil pizza, steamed green beans, salsa) and were thinking ahead to what they would like to make to eat. Our little garden has tied into studies of the Inuit (contrasting what they could not grow), the Acadians (who the students thought were devastated to leave their gardens and homes when they were deported), and now while learning about the prairie pioneers and how they grew their own food in our climate. Our garden work is starting to spill into the students’ homes and they have encouraged their parents to grow food in and outside of their house. A few students have brought home red wiggler worms from our harvests to start their own vermicomposting bins, seeing the cycle of food waste being able to help fertilize new food growth.
Fiona Watkins learns alongside her students and is trying to turn her black thumb green. When not at school she can be found outside with her sons and dogs, usually close to mountains or lakes.