Garden Visit Prompts Park Avenue Poets
With a garden beginning to bloom, first graders found inspiration for their writing at Park Avenue Elementary School. On April 23, young learners ventured out to the community garden on a sunny and warm afternoon with clipboards in hand.
Teachers Patricia Assande and Alexa Laskowitz tasked their students with using their five sense to explore the natural world and gather inspiration for their spring sensory poems. The project celebrated both Earth Day and Poetry Month.
Through hands-on exploration, students were thinking like both scientists and writers, observing changes occurring in the garden in spring. They smelled herbs, listened to birds, touched the soil and looked at plant growth. The first graders were encouraged to really notice the details to include in the poems they wrote as they sat at the garden’s benches and tables.
“These real-world experiences help students build curiosity about the environment,” Ms. Assande said, “while creating vivid, descriptive poetry based on what they see, hear, smell and feel.”
Asparagus, chives and lavender grow in the Park Avenue garden each year, and the first grade classes take the lead in its upkeep, including the annual spring cleanup. The planting of new flowers will soon begin.
