On February 9, 2015 the Rosa Parks ExCEL afterschool program got a visit from the San Francisco Foundation Environmental Initiative, lead by Francesca Vietor, Becky Weinberg and Tracy Zhu.
Serena Padilla, our Garden Educator, led the class through a lesson about haikus, poetry, and other stories. They youth wrote about what they were grateful for in the garden. Some of them started making up riddles about different things they find in the garden. Some of them performed their haikus or read their stories very passionately.
Then the youth harvested leeks and they had a blast.
Here are some of their writings:
“I am grateful for the animals that help the garden. Bees, hummingbirds, butterflies, ladybugs, earthworms.”- Kallie, 4th grade
“I am grateful for the plants and the little tiny ants.
Plants give us air and we breathe it everywhere.
I love the lemon trees and the buzzing bees.
I’m so grateful for the garden,
Oh, what a lovely garden!” – Sophia, 4th grade
“I appreciate tasting the garden foods. The garden is life.” – Johnathan, 3rd grade
“Life is awesome here. I’m thankful for all the bugs here. I love to look and research them. I’ll try to name them all:
rolley polley, worms, cockroach, spiders, ladybugs, and more. I like to see how they live.” – Trevonte, 4th grade