By

amie reker,   All-city Elementary School At Jane Addams

Play:

Topics:

Access to Healthy Foods,  Teamwork

Our school plants a garden full of vegtables in the spring before the summer vacation begins. Families signed up to care for the garden over the summer months. When we returned to school this fall, we had lessons on healthy eating, how vegetables grow and healthy snacks like cucumbers, green peppers, and zucchini to eat.

How did students and adults work together as a team?

Students devised a plan to share the garden with all grades, what plants to grow where, and created a sign-up sheet for families to water and weed during the summer. Our work influenced students to try fresh vegetables.

How do you plan to make this Play last during the school year and beyond?

4th grade students and the school student government students will create a plan for fall harvesting vegetables, and in the spring make a plan for the next year's garden planting.

What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?

Weeds in the summer grow rapidly and extra help was needed to care for the garden. Summer school classes were encouraged to weed the garden at recess and could pick the snap peas to eat as snacks.