After a one-week delay due to snow flurries and cold weather, students from Desert Star Community School marked the arrival of spring by planting a garden on the school’s Cornville campus.

Under the supervision of parent volunteers Laurie Mather and Mike Jefferson, students from each of the six grades at the school planted a variety of spring vegetables, including sweet peas, celery, kohlrabi, parsnips, radishes and yellow tomatoes.

“We want to teach the children how to sustain their food from the bottom up and understand the whole process,” Desert Star Community School Business Manager Cheryl LeBlanc said. “Reading a book about gardening and doing it produce two different kind of knowing.”

LeBlanc said planting and tending the garden will support learning on the kinesthetic level.

The garden supports the curriculum in teacher Sarah Van Dam’s third-grade class, which includes the practical arts of cooking, baking and making dwellings.

For the full story, see the Wednesday, April 4, issue of the Cottonwood Journal Extra.