By Lyonel Doherty
Kieran Bidmead shows off a pumpkin in the school’s new garden project, where students are learning how to grow vegetables and compost the leftovers. (Photo by Lyonel Doherty)
Reading, writing and arithmetic are necessary, but for some students, gardening is more fun at Oliver Elementary School.
Grade 7 teacher Dean Rowland has created an outdoor classroom for students by introducing a new garden plot in the back field.
And the students love it.
“I’m really excited to work with different foods and learning how to compost,” said pupil Heera Buttar. “Actually, right now, our class is making tomato soup and will serve it to the school.”
Buttar learned to pick basil when Mr. Rowland asked her to harvest a bunch one day.
“I guess he thinks I’m an expert now so I always pick the basil,” she chuckled.
Buttar likes composting because she enjoys seeing how food changes after you leave it for a while.
Fellow student Kieran Bidmead said he thinks the garden is a great idea because it allows kids to grow crops and see where their vegetables come from. His favourite task is harvesting, noting it teaches the kids how much work is involved in growing the food they eat.
Bidmead admitted that, sadly, he doesn’t eat as many vegetables as he used to.
Buttar said she is looking forward to experimenting with winter crops this year.
Mr. Rowland brought the garden idea to OES after establishing a garden at Osoyoos Elementary, where he previously taught.
He felt compelled to give OES students the same learning opportunities.
Mr. Rowland said there was a lot of interest and community support for the garden project here.
He pointed out the students helped assemble the beds and got their hands dirty hauling in the soil.
Classes were invited to paint murals on the boxes prior to assembly, as well as plant seeds and starter plants in a box assigned to their class.
Students are now coming out to the garden to check out how the seeds they planted have grown.
As an extension from the garden project, there is also a school-wide composting program, worm composting and a “Green Team” where students from any grade are invited to the garden at lunch time to plant seeds.
“When we planted in late May, and now with harvesting, I see lots of curiosity and opportunities to have an experience at school in an outdoor environment that is unique, meaningful, and aligns very well with the ‘core competency’ focus we are following.”
The teacher will try different ways to use the garden project as an outdoor classroom to teach parts of their Grade 7 math and language arts curriculum.
