This spring, classrooms across Windham County are overflowing with sprouts as students grow their sunflower and pea shoots. Ellen Nam’s Kindergarten class at Academy School has joined in the fun, and her students are discovering the wonder of gardening! 

To help make food, farming, and nutrition education more accessible for teachers, Food Connects sent out over 800 sprouting kits to classrooms throughout the county last month. Growing sprouts is an easy, hands-on way to get students excited about the coming spring season. Connections to learning standards throughout the grades mean it’s easy to tie the activity into existing units. Since sending out the kits, photos of smiling faces and towering shoots have been finding their way back to the Farm to School team.

In Ellen’s class, each student got to build their kits, adding the right amount of soil, water, and seeds to their growing tray before finding the right environment in the classroom for their sprouts to thrive. As any gardener knows, it was then a waiting game as students’ anticipation grew alongside their newly planted crops. 

The highlight came when it was time for each student to harvest their sprouts and make an individual salad of sprouts, cherry tomatoes, and ranch! Curricular connections came easy since students in Kindergarten explore the needs of living things—Ellen’s Kindergarteners can now tell you all about how plants need soil, water, and light to grow through their firsthand experiences with their sprouts. The growing didn’t end after the first harvest either—students were surprised and excited to see their plants continue to grow, and a week later, the class was able to harvest another batch of sprouts for a second snack. 

We are thrilled to see so many students excited about growing their food. We’re also grateful for all the teachers who brought the activity into their classrooms—it shows a broad interest in Farm to School programming in our schools and community. Food Connects looks forward to strengthening and expanding our partnerships with classrooms across Windham County, making Farm to School integration easy and fun for everyone.