Cindy Perkins teaches exceptional students at Grady Brown Elementary in Hillsborough. Part of their classroom learning is tending to a student garden. The class of seven has grown corn, squash, tomatoes, mums and pumpkins.
Since all of Perkins students function at different levels, they have different jobs in the garden. Like watering and pulling weeds, and get excited about seeing the garden grow. “The students enjoy the garden,” Perkins said. “They look forward to completing assignments so they can have garden time.”
The class monitored and watched the pumpkins grown and finally chose two to be pulled from the garden.
“We named the pumpkins Cougar 1 and Cougar 2,” Perkins said. “The Cougar is our school mascot. Cougar 1 was a perfect pumpkin, Cougar 2 is a little less perfect.”
The class was read statements about what makes a perfect pumpkin. Qualities include well-shaped, perfect stem and good color. Imperfect pumpkins have not matured as well, they don’t have stems, they are not bright orange and they are not perfectly round.
The class then voted on which pumpkin would make the trip to the fair. “The class chose Cougar two,” Perkins said. “I think it shows the quality of our students, and that you don’t have to be perfect to be liked.”
Although Cougar 2 did not win in the under 10 pound category at the N.C. State Fair. It still sits proudly for being the pumpkin chosen by the very special students at Grady Brown Elementary.
