HFHK to the rescue! McVey students face off Mr. Squirrel

ESL students learn gardening and language skills, expand program lessons

The garden at McVey Elementary School is used a little differently than HFHK's typical "Education Cultivation" program thanks to the ingenuity of Mrs. Kite, the school's ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher. Using the garden as a way to drive communication and language skills, Mrs. Kite's students are problem-solving and learning new responsibilities - especially the 4th and 5th graders. These students are now leaders in their garden forming teams such as Junior Garden Coordinators, Harvest Masters and Irrigation Engineers. These student leaders are taking pride and ownership in their garden. They recently reached out to HFHK for help with a small squirrel problem.

Dear Ms. Jen,

We are students from McVey Elementary School, and we have a problem with our garden. We've planted but we don't have animal repellent. So can we please get some? It would also help us a lot in our garden so Mr. Squirrel won't eat our plants, and we do not want that. Our garden will probably be bad or even worse. Thank you for helping us out with our garden like gloves and we just love our garden such as you do!

Sincerely,

Julian and Haylie

HFHK sprung into action at the call for help, and provided them with pest repellent pellets to help keep the squirrels out of their garden! When their irrigation system began leaking underground, Student Irrigation Engineers investigated and tried problem solving on their own, eventually reaching out to HFHK for assistance. We are proud of these students and their dedication to their school garden!