I had the privilege of visiting Matthew Marcis' Kindergarten Class this week. The students with the help of Mr. Marcis and Volunteer Mom, Madelyn McGrath planted a Gala Apple Tree. The garden is a work in progress that the children visit and work on every Wednesday.
Having a school garden isn't anything new, but most of the gardens that were started years ago have now become lost in the push for more academic studies.
A garden that is still thriving is located behind a Kindergarten classroom at Woodland Elementary School in Mariposa, CA.
Woodland School is recognized as a Distinguished School. The school has an enrollment of over 400 students, making it the largest elementary school in the Mariposa County Unified School District. http://www.mariposa.k12.ca.us/woodland/
Volunteer Mom, Madelyn McGrath along with Kindergarten teacher Matthew Marcis and Janitor Ken Price have refurbished a garden that is set up to improve environmental attitudes, promote good nutrition, increase physical activity and all the while teaching patience and cooperation. The session started with a creative puppet show about planting an apple tree. This was put on by McGrath who had made and designed the puppets for the show. There were many activities for the children to rotate through. One group painted a new sign, "Woodland Children's Garden", another worked in the worm farm and yet another was shoveling, what I was told by one little boy was, "Compost dirt for the Apple Tree".
One of their favorite projects is the Worm Farm. Girls and boys alike enjoy holding the worms. The worms are fed garbage and kept in a raised bed.
Getting dirty is an integral part of growing up. Only one little boy voiced concern about getting his new shirt dirty, the rest of the students dug right in to the dirt with their kid size shovels and tools.
The children worked tirelessly bringing wagons full of compost from the top of the hill to plant the new tree. They are hoping to eat some of the apples when they are in 2nd or 3rd grade.
This program was started through a California State Grant that has now been frozen. Madelyn McGrath has donated a lot of her time and money to keep the garden going this year.
Sadly Mr. Marcis was one of the teachers who received his Pink Slip last Friday.
