For the 2021-22 year the Youth Gardeners Committee had two Youth Gardener groups, the Wee Planters at Mary C Williams Elementary School and the Friends of the Earth at Bradley Creek Elementary School. Both groups this year were kindergartners. The committee members who worked with the Bradley Creek Elementary group were all new Garden Club members and they did a fabulous job, starting from scratch and running with it. Here are just a few of our favorite, fun projects with our students.
At Mary C Williams we started the year with bats to go along with the teacher’s lesson on bats! We read a book on bats, learned about what they ate and where they lived and made bat mobiles. For Christmas, the Wee Planters learned about the state bird, the cardinal, and made hand print cardinals on little canvases to give as gifts at home. They also learned about recycling and planting seeds with a milk jug recycled planter and marigold seeds project
At Bradley Creek we presented a lesson on our national bird, the turkey, and made turkey necklaces to take home for Thanksgiving. The Friends of the Earth sprouted sweet potatoes and discussed how Native Americans taught the pilgrims about growing food in their new home.
One of our favorite annual projects is to talk to the students about pollinators and how important they are to nature and the environment. Bradley Creek made “honeycomb” pollinator bulletin boards with bee facts. Both Wee Planters and Friends of the Earth watched butterflies grow from larvae to maturity to learn about the life cycle of the butterfly. This culminates in a butterfly release party at the end of the school year complete with the kids in butterfly wings.
