In the third trimester of eighth grade, students at St. John’s Episcopal School complete service-learning projects that serve as a capstone to their St. John’s education. This year, seven small groups worked for several months to identify and address community needs.
One of the projects that evolved was a cross-age, cross-curricular gardening effort with faculty guidance provided by Middle School teacher LeAnne Wyatt. Eighth grade team members Kyle Crain, Eva Kadane, Jordan Kindig, Mateo Means, Alex Poscente, Ali Simenc and James Vroom worked with all 50 kindergarten students.
Over a period of several weeks, the project involved semi-weekly interaction and hands-on activities. The eighth graders conducted research, planned and taught gardening classes to the kindergarten students, and then mentored them as they planted an herb garden. Together, the students prepared the garden boxes, built a worm farm and made “worm tea” (liquid concentrate worm compost used as plant food), started seeds in “glove” window planters inside the classrooms, and transplanted the seedlings to the planter boxes.
Eighth grader Eva Kadane thinks the interaction with the younger children came pretty naturally. She said, “Sometimes it was hard to get them all to listen at the same time, but they were excited about gardening and really looked up to us.”
Eva described how the most gratifying part of the project to her was when the mother of one of her kindergarten students told her how enthusiastically the child had been talking about the gardening. “[The mom] said her daughter has been talking about me all the time. It was so sweet to learn that I made an influence on this little girl," Kadane said.
Kindergarten student Andres Benitez simply said he enjoyed getting dirty and “the part where we sprayed worm tea.”
In celebration of their project, the eighth grade participants hosted a “groundbreaking event” to which they invited parents of the kindergarteners. They prepared presentations and offered tours of the Hillcrest Foundation Rooftop Garden, where the growing examples of their project could be seen. Afterward, students and parents prepared snacks using herbs grown in the garden, such as lemonade with mint sprigs and English muffin pizzas with basil.
Wyatt said, “Some aspects of the project didn’t go exactly as planned, but that can be the biggest learning experience. The students learned to be flexible, resilient and create a new plan.” She praised the students, who created a longer-term vision for their legacy garden and recruited volunteers to maintain the plants through the summer.
Kindergarten teacher Sarah Barr was excited about the project from the initial planning stages. Speaking of the cross-age aspect of the activities, she said, “It was extremely moving to watch the kindergarteners and eighth graders have their hands in the dirt together, asking each other questions, explaining in terms they each could understand, and respecting each other for the gifts they had to offer.” Barr added, “Learning is much more powerful and meaningful to students if teachers can step back and give the students the room they need to explore and discover on their own.”
Six other groups of eighth graders worked on service-learning projects, too:
- Community Gardening and Its Impact
- Poverty and Literacy with Mi Escuelita
- Immigration and Refugees with Gateway of Grace
- Environmental Impacts Involving the Blackland Prairie
- Literacy and Education with Reinhardt Elementary
- Caring for the Elderly with Juliette Fowler Homes