By Mike Hutchens, UC Schools Communications Director
Second-graders at Union City Elementary School are watching the life cycle of a plant come alive in living color.
Members of the Tennessee Farm Bureau Insurance women’s group recently visited the students and presented an ‘Ag in the Classroom’ program that focused on the life cycle of a plant and stressed the importance of plants in everyday life.
Students participated in an interactive, hands-on planting activity called ‘Gardening in a Glove’ that will hopefully serve as an example of the germination process and result in seeds evolving into sprouts.
In that exercise, each member of the inquisitive class received a plastic glove. Individually, they placed a squash seed in three of the fingers and then covered each seed with a damp cotton ball.
Members of the women’s group plan to return to the class in a couple of weeks to determine whether the seeds have sprouted and, if so, possibly transplant the sprouts into gardening beds in the school’s courtyard.
The lesson also included a read-aloud by TFBI representative Carol Baker of the book First Peas to the Table by Susan Grigsby. The book helped reinforce concepts of plant growth, teamwork, and farm-to-table learning, according to UCES 2nd-grade teacher Kristy Long, one of several to oversee the activity.