Second Graders Make Scarecrow for Garden
When Sarah LoCascio’s daughter started school four years ago, LoCascio knew they would both miss the outdoor time they spent together in the garden.
“I’m a gardener and my daughter always worked with me in our garden,” she said. “When she started kindergarten, I thought maybe I could bring the gardening to school, then every single student could experience gardening.”
And that is how the Kent Elementary School Garden was born. LoCascio met with administrators, set up a non-profit to raise funds for the work and recruited volunteers to help build a fence, create the raised beds and maintain the garden. In 2021, the garden was planted for the first time.
Now, gardening is part of every Kent Elementary student’s education. Each class is invited to participate in garden programs every fall and spring.
“In the fall, they pick vegetables, harvest, collect seeds and water the plants,” LoCascio said. “All the kids love to water.”
In the spring, students grow seeds in classroom seed kits and later plant the seedlings in raised beds in the garden.
The vegetables the students grow are donated to local food pantries each year, and the students take such pride in helping feed those in need, said Erica Intrieri, the garden treasurer.
“This year we donated 60 pounds of food to Second Chance Foods, a pantry in Brewster,” Intrieri said. “We grew a lot of cabbage and cabbage is heavy.”
On a recent day when the first frost was expected, Alexandra Stenger’s class of second graders came out to the garden, which sits in the side yard of Kent Elementary.
“Does anyone know what a frost is?” LoCascio asked.
“That’s when it’s lower than 32 degrees, and sometimes the plants die,” said second-grader Leanna. “But if the root is still in the ground, sometimes it grows again in the spring.”
Even though it was the end of the season and the pumpkins had not grown as planned, the students did not mind. They got to build a scarecrow instead.
They stuffed an old pair of jeans, green sneakers and a pink plaid shirt with plenty of crumpled newspaper.
Then the class took a vote on naming the scarecrow. They settled on “Mrs. Sunflower.”
“Does anybody know the purpose of a scarecrow?” LoCascio asked.
All the hands shot up: “It’s to scare away the birds.”
The students said they could not wait to start gardening again in the spring.