KIDS GARDENS (Selected Articles)

[Daddieo]

 

School Garden Mentors Build Bridges To Learning...and More

Photo by Callie Powell

This month, we focus on several approaches for using mentors to inspire and support school gardens, student learning, and busy teachers. From teens to seniors, community mentors – as well as their young charges – reap concrete and intangible rewards from building these relationships. In fact, research studies on these partnerships point to a host of positive outcomes in attitudes, social skills, personal growth, academic achievement, and more. Below you will find articles spotlighting some inspirational programs to help you consider how a mentoring effort could enhance your own school garden.

Teen Mentors and Third Graders Flourish in Literacy Garden
English and biology teacher Keli Bryan imagined some fertile connections: Create a service learning project in which tenth graders serve as mentors to the third grade reading class by using gardening literature and curricula.

Matching Mentors with School Gardeners in Austin
The community-based Sustainable Food Center (SFC) matches teachers who need help with trained mentors who can deliver it.

Connecting Generations: Mentor Program Helps Seniors and Students T...
Engaging older adults as volunteer mentors in school gardens to improve the emotional and physical health of the seniors and youth while building garden-to-neighborhood bridges.

Preparing School Garden Coordinators in Portland, OR
A hands-on training by the nonprofit organization Growing Gardens prepares educators and volunteers to serve as school garden coordinators.

 

[Daddieo]

 

Bringing The Garden Indoors

As cool weather arrives and outdoor gardens wrap up for the season, it is time to bring your plant studies indoors. Take a moment to think about and discuss what life was like during the cool seasons before the advent of modern conveniences – like glass-paned windows, indoor plumbing, and electricity!

IAlthough technological advances have greatly reduced the unpleasantness associated with winter months, there’s nothing to replace the feelings evoked by plants. This month we explore the many ways to use plants indoors to continue the gardening experience in your classroom through winter months.

The Roots of Indoor Greening - Decorating with plants gives you a way to continue the gardening experience in your classroom and at home through winter months.

Wreaths from the Fall Garden - As late autumn gives way to the holiday season and the days grow colder and darker, we instinctively want to capture nature’s final display of color before the snow flies. Wreaths are a creative, simple and kid-friendly way to do this.

Learning with Wreaths - Wreaths represent a simple activity that can be modified for multiple grade levels and can be used to teach many concepts related to environmental science, math, design and history.

Wreath Activity Provides a Sense of Place – Educator James Doyiakos shares how a wreath activity provides students with a sense of place and time.

Indoor Gardening Investigations - Using grow lights or sunny windowsills, your class can experiment with growing a wide range of plants, from houseplants and blooming bulbs to edible crops like radishes and lettuce. Kids get excited watching nature in action indoors while most everything outdoors is tucked in for the winter

[Daddieo]

 

Bringing Social Studies To Life in The School Garden

Photo Courtesy of Fertile Ground

As students sow, grow, and reap the fruits of school gardens, science and math lessons are naturally relevant. But consider the added possibilities for using school plots as a compelling lens for social studies and history. After all, exploring how food is (and has been) raised, transformed, and consumed across the globe can reveal a lot about communities and cultures, economies, human settlement and migration, changing world views, the influence of geography and climate, and more. In the process, students connect to the source of our sustenance, appreciate human diversity, and explore what makes food systems tick. What’s more, as they sample their way through these themes, they just might opt to give healthful new edibles a shot.

intrigued? The following stories and lessons from the field might inspire you to tend to some new learning goals in your schoolyard plot.

Growing Social Studies Lessons: Ideas and Links – Lesson ideas and resources from the field might inspire you to tend to some new learning goals in your schoolyard plot.

Food Roots and Routes – Invite students to explore the journey of produce from farm to table and chew on the idea of eating close to home.

Cultivating Peace and Cultural Understanding – A spotlight of one school’s efforts to teach about culture and history through gardening and cooking activities.

Fertile Ground: Growing Food, Community, Cultural Connections –
Explore this innovative program that uses the garden as a springboard for enticing students to eat fresh food, connecting them to diverse communities, and introducing them to local aspects of food systems.

Eatin’ with Grandma – Home school parents devise a successful, hands-on way to combine social studies lessons and support their focus on local food and issues.

Baking Bread to Nurture Cultural Understanding – Using children’s experiences and taste buds as the springboard for exploring and appreciating commonalities and differences among cultures.