Cleaning Up The BDMS Sensory Garden

On October 23, I was lucky enough to be a part of cleaning up the BDMS Sensory Garden with the fourth grade class and my peers. I had been looking forward to this experience in the weeks prior. I was not sure what I expected to gain from the experience, but it ended up being a beautiful way to end our fieldwork time with the fourth graders. The fourth grade class was so excited to go outside and work in the garden. We were fortunate enough to be working in the garden on a gorgeous day. It was sunny and not too cold. The students dove right into cleaning the garden. The students were asked to remove any weeds and dead plants. The students were allowed to pick any ripe vegetables they found. Their teacher gave each of them a ziplock bag. Students spent their time finding anything they could pick to bring home. Some of the boys worked together to rip dead plants out of the ground while some of the girls worked with their teacher to cut basil leafs off of plants. Students were able to pick and bring home peppers, tomatoes, basil leafs, and other herbs.                                                                                               
Working together in this hands-on activity really brought the lesson full circle, for the teachers and the students. Teachers and students got to spend quality time together; working to achieve a goal while still considering the aspects of  each lesson we taught them. Overall, this was a wholesome experience that I will carry with me into my future teaching science to children. Hopefully I will be able to be a part of a similar experience in the future at another school.