Children Try Their Hands at Gardening

For their first hands-on gardening project, kindergarten and first-grade pupils at Sunland Elementary School planted strawberry seedlings Wednesday, capping off a monthlong study of agriculture.

Nearly 100 children planted several dozen strawberry seedlings in a huge planter set up on the schoolyard as teachers and Valley Fair officials--who donated the plants--looked on.

“When the strawberries are ripe, the kids want to have a strawberry and cream party,” said teacher Fran Del Steele. “Then they want to replant the plants in a garden that is going to be part of our future playground.”

In addition to the strawberry planting, the children heard from Northern California farmers who talked to them about growing and harvesting vegetables, fruit, cotton and other crops.

By bringing in the farmers, Steele said, she hoped the pupils would link what they have learned in the classroom to what goes on in the real world.

“When I asked some kids where strawberries came from, they said, ‘The store,’ ” Steele said, recalling when she first introduced the agriculture lesson plan in early April. “They didn’t have any idea how they got to the store.”

In the last month, the children have grown silkworms, made a scarecrow, viewed a film on chick hatching and decorated their classroom with handmade pictures of farm animals, Steele said.

The Valley Fair sponsored the strawberry planting and farmers’ visit as a preview of the upcoming annual agricultural show to be held June 5-8 at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center in Burbank, said fair manager Dale Coons.

“It’s an effort on our part,” he said, “to educate students about the production of one of our state’s major crops.”