Plaza Elementary School introduces cucumber blossoms curriculum

As part of the 2022-2023 school-wide curriculum at Plaza Elementary School, students, grades K-5, participated in a unique interdisciplinary program dedicated to the pickle.

Starting from a seed in the elementary school’s garden, this pickling frenzy exploded into an intriguing, inspiring, and fun deeper learning experience. From pickleball to a pickling venture to pickle equations, the fermented cucumber transformed into a joint effort and common theme, bringing together the school community and families, while connecting classwork with real-life, hands-on experiences. 

“Pickles are silly. Pickles are fun. Our goal this year was for students and teachers to explore connections,” Mark Gray, principal of Plaza Elementary School said. “Our learning community was able to tap into gardening, pickling, marketing, community partnerships, entrepreneurship, opinion writing, social emotional learning, and all content areas simply by starting with pickles. Imagine, our explorations allowed us to connect pickles with the electoral college. The premise is simple. Help kids understand connections. Because in 2035, the world will value the most professionals that can connect with creativity and intuition.”

Each grade managed to effectively incorporate pickles into their coursework. The teachers enjoyed partnering on creative scholastic approaches. For instance, kindergartners studied how to pickle a pumpkin. Rather than tossing leftover pumpkins into the garbage, students learned what to do with all the parts of the autumn vegetable so that they can be more sustainable.

Other grades used pickles to survey staff and then interpret the data, graphing the results and drawing inferences from their calculations. Even the idiom, “in a pickle,” served as a social-emotional tool to help students problem-solve an especially complicated scenario.

“The pickle project was a great opportunity to build connections between what teachers were already doing, planting in the garden, and make it so much more,” said Jeanette Rottkamp, assistant principal of Plaza Elementary School. “Teachers could see how their projects fit into another teacher’s project or even a different grade. I was excited to see vertical alignment and a school-wide theme that everyone could take part in.”

The pickle even engaged families through Plaza’s newsletter, which featured a monthly update on the pickling activities taking place throughout the school.

One of the many impressive endeavors to come out of Plaza’s project-based curricula was the elementary school’s new pickling company: Plaza Pickles. After the Student Council pickled cucumbers from the school’s garden and local food markets with the help of horticulture expert and pickling guru, Liz Alpert from the Gefilteria, the students collaborated in ways that went beyond the classroom. Such ways include working with peers in different grades to zooming with Baldwin High School students to discuss marketing and branding strategies, including logo design, merchandise, and social media.

“There were so many lessons beyond just pickles. Together, students created a vision for Plaza Pickles and had to make decisions on how to market and sell a product,” explained Rottkamp.

The Student Council decided to use Plaza Pickles to make a positive change by helping those who suffer from food insecurity through their new venture. The students worked with Long Island Cares to design infographics on the organization’s behalf to raise awareness. The pickle jars packed earlier in the year were auctioned off to Baldwin families to raise money for charity.

The pickle curricula culminated with a site-based showcase hosted for Plaza families at the end of the year. The students and faculty enjoyed the learning experiences associated with pickling and finding creative ways to incorporate into their curriculum.