Enter Cathi Robb-Carney, who has operated the school’s outdoor learning center. She said the center provides a nice getaway for children who may want some alone time at recess instead of the crowded playground politics that can sometimes arise.

Students come out, check in and relay what they would individually like to do as a task for around 20 minutes and then head to their next period when the whistle blows, Robb-Carney explained.

Around seven of that day’s second-grade students chose to participate in the alternate recess that day. Some elect to color, watercolor or play with legos, which are some of their possible activities. Others choose to work in the center’s garden, weeding or picking produce like cherry or Roma tomatoes, which is wrapping up its season now.

During the pandemic, gardening seemed to have a resurgence in popularity. A local scout assembled the center’s beds as part of his Eagle Scout project.

Each grade from preschool to fourth has an assigned garden bed within the outdoor learning center of Joshua Dixon Elementary School. This is the second grade garden. (Photo by Stephanie Ujhelyi)

She said the school had this unused garden from this scout and her attendance at a eco therapy workshop at a conference had inspired this program. “Our principal had wanted to use this as an outdoor learning center, so one weekend, a friend and I just came down, cleaned up and weeded and started the process.”

A variety of flowers and produce is planted in the youth-build raised beds one for each grade, K-4.

Generally Robb-Carney starts the process in February, doing the initial planting with the crops that take the longest.

For example, the preschoolers and kindergarteners tackle the spring green mix and spinach since they grow first, second and third the lettuce and snow peas, and fourth all the varieties of tomatoes and edible flowers.

Carrots, cucumbers and onions start early, so they are a good spring and summer crop.

Cathy Robb-Carney (right), a K-8 counselor for Columbiana Exempted School District, talks to seven second-grade students who selected the alternate recess in the outdoor learning center at Joshua Dixon Elementary School instead of the playground. Some students elect to harvest produce or complete other gardening tasks, while others elect to either play board games, legos, or color. Having the alternate option to the playground politics has made for less post-recess crying among elementary school students. (Photo by Stephanie Ujhelyi)

With school closed over the summer, most of the harvest is shared with Dixon staff as well as given away. However some goes to Sabi’s restaurant in exchange for a monetary donation to the school.

Robb-Carney even entered some of the students’ bounty in the Canfield Fair. While there were quite a few participation ribbons, they also did place in the top categories, too.

In addition to winning in the junior division for their Carrot entry, they finished third for their Green Beans entry, and sixth for their Snacker Peppers within the junior division.

Since there was no junior category for tomatoes, they placed fourth with their Striped Romas as well as won Best in Show with their Roadside Banquet category entry.

“The outdoor learning garden gives them a place to come and be themselves,” Robb-Carney said, adding there tends to be a lot less tears after recess.

An area with a greenhouse with benches exists in the Joshua Dixon Elementary School’s outdoor learning center, which the students utilize as an alternate recess area. Out here, students can choose to do anything from color or put together Legos or tend the area’s many gardens. (Photo by Stephanie Ujhelyi)

Sometimes up to 50 kids a day select the garden for their 20-minute recess site.

Robb-Carney, who is a counselor for grades K through 8, is usually Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at Dixon. Tuesdays and Thursdays, she is at Southside Middle School.

In addition to teaching them about gardening and tranquillity, the biggest benefit is the emotional and social ones. “Children don’t have to deal with ‘play my way or not at all’ demands,” Robb-Carney concluded.

Shown are some Roma tomatoes raised by elementary aged students at Joshua Dixon Elementary School in their outdoor learning center. Students finished in fourth place against the adults for their Striped Romas in the Tomato category at the Canfield Fair, as there was no junior category for tomatoes. (Photo by Stephanie Ujhelyi)

Clockwise from left, second-grade students Ethan VanGiesen, Bennett Wagner and Aydan Gardner harvest cherry tomatoes from one of the gardens in Joshua Dixon Elementary School’s outdoor learning center. (Photo by Stephanie Ujhelyi)