VVES Students Get Green Thumbs At Summer School

By AMY DAVIS

The Progress

The garden is in full bloom at Virgin Valley Elementary School as the 2022 Summer Acceleration Program comes to an end. Teacher, Lupe Guzman, worked with 24 children, who just finished Kindergarten, for 2 weeks of summer learning focused on growing food.

Clark County School District offered free “summer learning opportunities to accelerate the academic, social-emotional, and behavioral development of all students.” Summer Acceleration was offered for students in Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 12 from May 31 – June 17, 2022.

Each teacher that participated developed their own curricula. Lupe Guzman had worked on her garden with her kindergarten students all through the school year, so it only seemed natural to carry the same lessons through to the summer.

“We just continued where we stopped,” said Guzman. “First, we did a little review to make sure that no skills were lost. Then we began concentrating on higher order thinking. We did a lot of STEM (Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) activities.”

Guzman has found that many areas of study can be covered through the lessons of gardening. “You can calculate how much soil you need to fill a planter or how many seeds you need for each row,” she said. “You can get into the science of soil health as well as the benefits of healthy food. You can study worms and bugs that are either beneficial or harmful to plants. There is literally so many directions you can go with this unit.”

Guzman loved the way the garden provided hands on experiences for the children. She had students document changes they saw in the garden from day to day, worked on plant identification, and vocabulary enrichment using gardening terms.

After the kids spent time in the garden, they would come back to class and participate in writing activities to record their findings and observations. “I got some of the most beautiful drawings from the children,” said Guzman.

Students were instructed to write about their observations, include an illustration and then present their report to the class. “Someday these little kids are going to have to speak (in front of others) so this is also a great opportunity to work on their public speaking skill,” added Guzman.

The VVES garden has long been a labor of love. “We planted fruits and vegetables during the year along with Mrs. Silvagio and Mrs. Durbin’s class,” Guzman said. “We planted radishes, tomatoes, strawberries, fig trees, pomegranates, peach trees, almond trees, zucchini, beets, red and yellow sun flowers, watermelon, lettuce and pumpkin.”

This garden has been part of Guzman’s curriculum for the last six years. “Not much was ready to harvest when the students were there,” she said. “But they did get to eat the strawberries, and they loved it!”

Parent Michelle West said that she loved the emphasis on STEM in learning in the program. “The students were having a great time and realizing that the learning process can be fun,” West said. “The hands-on approach is something they will always remember.”
“Mrs. Guzman’s passion shows when she takes her students to the garden,” West added.

As a recent kindergarten graduate, Samantha West was excited to keep learning. Of her experience Samantha reports, “I loved seeing the strawberries and where they grow. I loved the nut tree because I didn’t know that nuts grew on trees.”
This was news to more than one student.

“My favorite part about the garden were the red sunflowers,” said young participant Sage Johnson. “It was my first time seeing a red sunflower. There was also a small pumpkin that I loved.”

Samantha’s mom, Liz Johnson, said that her kids would beg to go to summer school every day. “Sage was so sad when summer school ended,” Johnson said. “They enjoyed every single minute.”
As the old saying goes, “To garden is to believe in tomorrow.”

Mrs. Guzman has assured her class that as soon as the watermelons are ripe, she is going to collect every student that helped with the garden to make sure they get a taste of the literal fruits of their labor.