French said that the students have been learning about living organisms, nonliving organisms, plant parts, properties of soil, resources, and more.

“What better way to teach students than to make lessons come to life,” French said. “It is also good for students to learn to take care of plants and gives them responsibility. The students helped with everything from unloading, planting, and now watering. Next year we will continue maintaining the planter boxes with watering, fertilizing, and pruning.”

Harrist said that she hopes to continue this lesson, and lessons like this in the future.

“We also studied this last year and watched videos about how to plant,” Harrist said. “I plan to incorporate math and science with this project next year also. We will graph, measure, and compare data on the plants. Tending to the plants is also a great prevocational skill for the kids.”

French said that along with Little Red Riding Hood Nursery in Lubbock, the class helped plan the layout and pick out flowers that would work for the area they were planted.

“Nikki from Little Red Riding Hood Nursery was so kind and answered lots of our questions,” French said. “I also want to thank David, the TVMS groundskeeper, who is going to water over the summer, and is even gathering rainwater to help water them. We also want to thank Mrs. Arellano's broadcast class that helped our kids plant the flowers.”

French said that this was a fun and exciting project for her students.

“The kids loved getting their hands dirty, well most of them,” French said. “The kids enjoyed working and all the praise they received from the teachers and staff about how well it looked. It meant a lot to the kids - they were so proud.”