Butler Catholic students' gardening efforts pay off
Big, small, warty, smooth, green and orange … the pumpkins grown by the Butler Catholic School Garden Club intrigued the students as they harvested them Friday.
Amid shouts of “over here!” and “wow, look at this one!,” BCS staff members Kate Jordan and Krissy Wissinger cut the pumpkins from the vines as the students then moved them into the school building.
The pumpkins are a months-long project for BCS and its garden club, beginning in early spring when they test the soil and prepare it for planting. Seeds are sown by club members in May, and tended throughout the summer by Garden Club members and their families.
This is the second year for the pumpkin patch, and the excitement is even greater than it was the first year. While some pumpkins become jack-o'-lanterns or pumpkin pie, these pumpkins have a different future ahead of them. In October, each classroom will select a pumpkin as its entry in the BCS Pumpkin Roll.
The students will name it, decorate it, and prepare it for the big event. The entire school will gather in the sloped parking lot and participate in a pumpkin rolling tournament. Classrooms will release their pumpkins down a ramp and let them roll across the parking lot, and the first to cross the finish line moves on to the next round, which then pits grade against grade. At the conclusion of the tournament, the champion is crowned and that class wins a pizza party.While the pumpkins bring laughter and fun to the students, they are part of the school garden that brings so much more to Butler Catholic. Starting in third grade, students are able to join the garden club, with bi-monthly meetings. Club members learn about gardening, soil, composting, pollinators, fruit trees and growing flowers and vegetables. They harvest the vegetables and provide them to the school cafeteria and to St. Vincent de Paul Food Bank to share with others in the community. They learn teamwork, respect for our environment and respect and love for God's creations. And the garden teaches the students how to learn. It provides a natural environment of inquisitiveness, of curiosity, of creativeness.
The pumpkin harvest will undoubtably spark a lesson in creative writing as the students create stories about the interesting shapes and “personalities” of the fruits. They will be incorporated into lessons in science class, in faith class and even math class as seeds are counted and used to solve equations.As Colin Stefaniak said when he picked his big bumpy pumpkin, “Look at this Huge Warty Chungus pumpkin. I can't wait to write a story about him!”Kate Jordan, fourth grade teacher, summarizes the pumpkin patch and its impact on the school: “From early spring until late fall, the students are focused on not only their own lessons in the classroom, but also on what is going on in the garden. The new life that emerges in the spring, followed by strong growth during the summer and then dying off in the fall, teaches incredible lessons about the life cycle, the gifts that God has given us and the importance of always being thankful for today. Today is a gift; tomorrow will be a different gift. And the cycle continues.”
