GARDENING, IT GROWS ON YOU

Week 5 of Connect: Gardening

This session was bittersweet, as it was our last night of Connect: Gardening! Because it was the last night, we did some really fun activities such as painting rocks and garden signs, planting our own garden beds, and we even ended it off with an ice cream party!

As the kids arrived, they started painting three of their own rocks to put in their garden beds. Amy printed out some pictures of painted rocks for inspiration, but most of the kids painted the rocks with their own imagination. There was an assortment of designs such as bugs, cacti, flowers, etc. Then, Amy gave the kids paint markers so they could design their garden signs for their flower beds. One of the kids wrote “Love is the answer to everything” on theirs, which we thought was so sweet.

After the kids were done painting, we went outside to plant our flower beds. They had the choice between three flowers to plant and one by one they planted and watered them. I was so impressed to see that the kids were mostly planting the flowers on their own with very minimal help needed!

We concluded the evening with something that made the kids more excited than ever: an ice cream party! The kids were given Neapolitan ice cream and got to choose between an assortment of toppings such as whip cream (which the kids definitely utilized), lots of sprinkles, and a cherry to put on top. As Amy was serving the yummy dessert, we chatted about which activity in this group the kids enjoyed the most. Some said they really enjoyed the painting activities, and others said they enjoyed learning about the gardening.

As this was my first ever group volunteering for, I was so impressed to see the evolvement of the kids’ skills over the 5 weeks. Some of the kids seemed to really enjoy planting flowers and vegetables and said they were excited to plant at home. Other kids seemed to really excel artistically, which I thought was so wonderful to see.

Overall, we had such an awesome group of kids for this group, and I really enjoyed getting to know them! I also enjoyed learning more about gardening myself, and I am inspired to plant my own flowers at home now.

June 20, 2023

-Jael, BigsNBC Volunteer