“Outdoor Classes” help children gain useful skills.
Work in the greenhouses and on the beds of school No. 4 in Okha began to boil with the advent of heat. Although, in fact, it started back in March, when children, under the guidance of adults, started growing seedlings. Director Yelena Semshchikova told Sakhalin Oilman about what was sown in the school beds this year and what the labor on the land gives children.
– We have already planted two greenhouses: one with tomatoes, the other with cucumbers. They sowed dill, carrots, today they supplemented the garden with parsley. The children are finishing planting onions, beets and radishes are next, – says Elena Khalimovna.
Garden
Every year the school increases the diversity of its landings. Only seeds are bought, and all seedlings, including flower ones, are grown by children under the supervision of teachers using aeroponics – special equipment for growing microgreens.
– We plant marigolds, asters, marigolds, annual dahlias. It is especially interesting that this year we decided to display with our plantings a memorable date – the 75th anniversary of our region. On one bed, plants were planted in the form of the inscription “City of Okha”, on two more, vegetable and flower, – “75 years”. And in the center of the flower bed we will try to grow the word “Sakhalin”. Now everything depends on the weather, the headmaster says hopefully.
– Last season we managed to get a big harvest, even tomatoes and zucchini grew in the open field. And we froze so much dill and parsley that we are still eating up, – Elena Semshchikova shares the successes of her pupils.
Garden 1
But the main thing in the project is not only the harvest, but the socialization of children, the opportunity to gain gardening skills.
– We see the result: children who have been engaged in crop production for more than a year are already calmly and confidently getting down to business. They know all the technology, how to hold a glass correctly, how to pull out seedlings, how to sprinkle with earth. What was new and incomprehensible is now easier. There is a successful correctional work: children with special educational needs clearly remember previous experiences and cope with the tasks. For them, this is already familiar work, which means that these children will have additional advantages in their future independent life,” the director sums up.
The long-term project “Open Air Classes” has been successfully implemented at School No. 4 since 2020.
