5th Grade Vegetable Garden

Each of the five fifth grade classes meets for gardening for an hour once every
two weeks. Two community members instruct in the classroom, issues such as
safety, "how to", and the "tasks of the day". The students are given a paper that
goes into their gardening workbook, which by year-end will give them a
complete gardening manual. The students then spend the remainder of the
allocated time preparing soil, planting plants or seeds, weeding, fertilizing,
working with compost, and finally harvesting. Lessons and tasks are part of the
science curriculum and are designed to teach subjects that help to prepare the
students for the TEKS exams.

Jo Sanders, our founding gardener, a retired math teacher, and a Harris County
Master Gardener, has been doing this for five years. Hal Opperman is a retired
ExxonMobil employee and a life long gardener who has volunteered around Oak
Forest for four years. Mothers and other gardeners sometimes help out and are
always welcome. And finally, our teachers "dig right in", sometimes even
literally, and keep us on "lesson plan".

During a normal school year our students harvest these crops. Tomatoes,
peppers, squash, potatoes, sweet potatoes, lettuce, kohlrabi, cauliflower,
broccoli, lemons, many types of herbs, radishes, collards, eggplant, cucumbers,
sugar snap peas, beans, grapes and onions.

If you would like to visit our garden in "action" please contact Vivian Cardoso for
a tour or more information or contact our webmaster through this site.