Harvest Festival Offers Young Students Hands-on Learning and Happiness

By Jillian Daley

At the Harvest Festival that the North Marion High School FFA put on last week, students like first-grader Axel Camacho Flores participated in activities including planting a seed. 

That day, Axel peered thoughtfully at a clear plastic coffee cup covered with a lid. The cup was filled with soil and one little seed that he’d planted.

“I liked doing this, but do I have to drink it?” said Axel, whose twinkling eyes made it clear he knew he did not.

In fact, he displayed a budding understanding of agriculture, made still more wonderful with the vast power of his imagination.

“We have to put water and a lot of seeds, so it can become a big tree I can climb,” he said. “I will learn how to climb that plant. I’m going to learn how to fly.”

If the idea of the FFA’s Harvest Festival, held in the greenhouse at the High School on Oct. 27, was to inspire a fascination with agriculture in younger students (and it was), it seemed to be working. The local chapter’s event, naturally, reflected the purpose of the FFA, a national youth organization that promotes and supports ag education. 

The FFA North Marion Chapter created a host of ag-themed activities for its Harvest Festival, such as: visiting a petting zoo featuring goats and bunnies; planting seeds; and choosing one future jack-o'-lantern from the “pumpkin patch” created with tiny gourds that FFA students had tucked into the lawn next to the greenhouse. 

Inside the greenhouse, goats Rosebud and Daphne were under the care of FFA member Denali Bosco. Bosco, a North Marion senior, also offered educational insights, showcasing products spun of goat wool for the children, including one reminiscent of a toadstool. The outspoken Axel was overjoyed.

“Cool, isn’t it?” Bosco asked him.

“That one looks like the Mario game mushroom!” he said.

Bosco not only offered educational tips, but an opportunity for the children to open their hearts to the natural world.

“I’m just telling people the little I know about goats,” Bosco said. “The little ones will come over and love on them.”

The kids were getting the message about how nature works and not only from adoring the goats, but from other stations, especially the one where students could plant a seed. 

“I would maybe say a bean and water makes a plant,” first-grader Gabriella Hernandez explained serenely.

First-grader Kelvin Gerdes put it another way.

“It can go home, and I can grow it and it can grow into a plant,” he said, holding it tightly.

Both Kelvin and Gabriella had also visited the face painting station. Kelvin asked volunteer painter Glenda Creekmore, a local parent, to decorate his arm instead of his face. He explained why afterward.

“I don’t like face painting,” Kelvin noted. “It’s really hard for me to stay still, trust me! That’s why I already have a tattoo on my arm” (and not his face).

He held up a blue dinosaur watch tattoo on his right arm after displaying his left. 

Seeing students enjoy themselves so much while learning about plants and animals also made North Marion teachers happy.

“The Harvest Festival gives them hands-on experience with animals,” North Marion Primary School First-Grade Teacher Briana Louis said. “Half of them said they’d like to have a pet bunny before this, and then they got to pet bunnies here. It’s giving them the real-life experience they’re not getting at home. Not everyone has something to plant and watch grow at home.”

Her students, including Axel, Gabriella, and Kelvin, also wore smiles the whole time, something they’d bring home to their families, along with some happy Harvest Festival memories.

“It picks up our community,” Louis said.

Spreading a little joy here and there is another way of planting a seed.

To share stories on the North Marion School District, email Communications Specialist Jillian Daley at jillian.daley@nmarion.k12.or.us.