Special-education students add garden to school
By:Lisa Tarriff
Jennifer Topolewski, a special-education teacher at Hillsborough Middle School, feared her students weren’t grasping her lessons about plants. So she took them outdoors.
The nine students in the self-contained class spent several weeks on a science unit on plants. Lessons focused on life cycles of plants and how to care for them.
At the culmination of the teaching unit, students planted their own garden outside the school annex. Local nurseries, middle school staff members and the Home and School Association donated flowers for the garden.
The class used old truck tires as planters for some of the areas. “It was a real hands-on lesson,” Ms. Topolewski said.
The students spent an entire day digging in the dirt and measuring where flowers should be planted.
“Marigolds have to be eight inches apart,” said Ciba Salih, 14, as she held her ruler. The students also planted sunflowers and azaleas, Ciba said.
“It was a lot of work,” said Kimberly McLaughlin, 15. “We raked and raked.” But she didn’t mind. “My favorite part is putting the flowers in the dirt,” she said.
In order to prepare to plant, the class took a trip to Neshanic Station Farm to watch other students with disabilities work with the plants there.
Students learned how to groom the plants and practiced reading the information tag for the type of sun needed, the height and spacing between the plants.
“We learned if they need a lot of sun or a lot of shade,” Kimberly said.
Kim Zajack of the Rutgers Cooperative Extension visited the class and explained each flower that was planted.
Now that the hard work of planting is done, students can admire their work. “We can finally see the bright colors,” Ciba said.