Kindergartners Visit Tanaka Farms, Bring Pumpkins Back to Surprise Upper School Students

St. Margaret’s kindergarten students recently went on a field trip to Tanaka Farms in Irvine, where they had the chance to harvest fall crops, learn more about farm animals, and pick out pumpkins from the farm’s expansive patch.

 

The pumpkins, however, were not for them.

 

Instead, the students brought the pumpkins back to St. Margaret’s, decorated them with silly faces and uplifting messages, and delivered them to Upper School students as a way to serve their older Tartan peers and demonstrating leadership by bringing a little extra joy to the school day.

 

Senior Ava Lentz, for example, was asked if she wanted a pumpkin. When she said yes, the kindergarten student went through his entire decoration process from start to finish, explaining the glued flowers and string on the handle. “It filled me with joy and helped relieve my stress for the day,” Ava said.

 

Such interactions filled the Upper School courtyard during the morning break on Wednesday, with one senior exclaiming “This made my whole week!”

 

“It was a wonderful experience to spread some fall love to our school community and see the interactions unfold between the Lower School and Upper School students,” kindergarten teacher Mara Balak said.

 

Taking the pumpkins to the Upper School courtyard wrapped up the kindergarten students’ memorable Tanaka Farm experience. On the field trip, students had the chance to harvest and bring home carrots, green onions and radishes, take a tour of the farm on a wagon, and learn more about chicken eggs and a variety of farm animals that call Tanaka home.

 

The visit to the Upper School was an important service-learning component of the trip, as well as a chance for a cross-divisional interaction with older students, a cherished part of the Tartan experience made possible by St. Margaret’s unique early childhood-grade 12 campus.  

 

“This is what our community is all about,” Upper School Director of Community Life Lora Allison said. “Watching kindergartners approaching the oldest students in the school and seeing those students’ demeanors instantly change, as they were filled with appreciation and child-like joy. It was exactly what the Upper Schoolers needed.”