As Meadowview Elementary student Peyton Cothran, 9, picked leaves of basil from the outdoor garden at Meadowview Elementary, the fresh herbal scent floated in the air.

“Every morning we go out there and pick,” Peyton said. “A lot of us do a lot of things, like pick the beans or go look at the tomatoes and see if they are red or not. If the zucchini is shaped like an hourglass, we pick them.”

Meadowview Elementary’s summer enrichment program will end Wednesday, and by that time, the students will have studied gardening and biomes, such as grasslands and deserts, through a hand-on approach.

The two-week program balances classroom learning with experiences outside, whether educational, physical activity or relay games.

Meadowview Elementary student Kelsi Fails, 8, most enjoyed water day.

“We had water balloon races,” Kelsi said. “We had one race where we had to run down to our cone and then sit on a balloon until it popped and then race back.”

Students also visited educational sites, such as Old Cahawba, where they toured the cemetery.

Morgan Academy student Cassidy Lawrence, 11, was most interested to find all the graves, whether soldiers or community members, had plain headstones.

“It was just a big tall grave.” Cassidy said. “I thought it would be different and have more decorations and tell more about him.”

Tracy Plummer, Meadowview Elementary reading coach and summer enrichment teacher, has been most excited about the lesson on rain forests.

“After we did the rain forest, we did a walking trip to Winn-Dixie and looked at the different things in Winn-Dixie to see where they were from,” Plummer said. “We came back and graphed it using the world map and then listed where the things were from.”

Many of the students are already planning to attend the programming at Meadowview next summer.

“This is the way that teaching should be,” Plummer said. “The kids are having a blast learning. It’s just been fun.”