Seedfolks Community Garden

A student in a uniform and baseball cap poses with her teacher.

A teacher helps uniformed students with planting in a cup outside

students walk down the hall carrying a bag of soil

students sit outside with planting supplies

students watch as a teacher demonstrates planting

students collaborate to plant some seeds

A student fills a cup with soil from a bag

Students tend to their community garden inside

students work together to plant seeds outside

MS343 6th grade Humanities students are finishing up their unit on Seedfolks, a novel about a diverse group of people in Cleveland who come together to turn a vacant lot into a community garden. The story shows how a community garden can help solidify a community and bring people of various ages, cultures, and ethnicities together for a common purpose—bettering themselves and their neighborhood.

This week, 6th grade students started their own classroom community gardens with lima beans, just like the first character in the novel. Now, they are carefully tending the seeds, and tracking how long it takes them to germinate, grow, and blossom, in a great cross-curricular opportunity.

Teachers and students both love the opportunity to get outside with nature and work collaboratively to care for living things and help them to thrive.