Gordon Parks second graders harvest their first garden salad

The end of the school year is an exciting time for students. The sun is out, temperatures are on the rise and summer vacation is just around the corner. For students involved in Kansas City Community Gardens’ Schoolyard Gardens program, the end of the spring semester is celebrated by a garden harvest party. Students harvest lettuce, radishes, broccoli, snap peas and other greens, and are able to enjoy the fruits and veggies of their labor!

At Gordon Parks Elementary in midtown Kansas City, students in Ms. Davidson’s 2nd grade class participated in the 9-week Grow in the Garden series in which they learned about the importance of weeding, insect identification, vegetable identification and more during weekly visits to the garden. We wrapped up our final lesson with a bountiful harvest. Under a light rain, students filled bag after bag with radishes and heads of lettuce from their garden. We took our harvest back into the classroom, where we weighed each bag and added it all up. The students grew and harvested 15 pounds of radishes and lettuce alone! We washed the veggies and the students enjoyed a delicious salad, with some to spare. The students were each able to bring radishes and a head of lettuce home to their families.