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Hello! I am really interested in gardening in elementary schools. I want children in California to know where their food comes from! Any tips?
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I teach 5th grad in northern Illinois and my teaching partner is in charge of the "grow club" after school. The students love it. Even some of the very quiet students really get into it. The students are learned about pumpkins in October, and holly, and evergreen trees in December. It's a great way to get students interested in the outside!
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I think it is very important for children to understand where their food comes from and they may want to eat the fruits and vegetables they personally grow!
Check out this website: http://growing-minds.org/school-gardens/
It has resources, basic steps, activity guides, lesson plans and much more!
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Here is a link to a forum on gardens located in Life Science.
http://learningcenter.nsta.org/discuss/default.aspx?tid=HdCllU7P7vo_E#49961
It has lots of ideas and refers you to some journal articles.
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Another idea, especially if you're tight on space is to try container gardens. You can continue to add and can move it around if need be!
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I think it is wonderful that you want to teach gardening to your students! You can certainly start with your classroom and maybe have an after-school class for students who are interested in learning more about gardening.
If your school does not have the space to have an outdoor garden or has little space, container gardening is a great alternative!
For more information, you can check out this website! It is packed with great articles and resources!
http://www.kidsgardening.org/article/consider-container-gardening
Hope this helps!
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Cynthia, I love the idea of an after-school gardening program.
Victoria, it would be really cool if you also incorporated CA native plants. This would be a great opportunity to discuss the current drought as well. You could have students grow these plants in small pots and then ask if you can re-plant them around the school. Here is a website that has some great information regarding CA native plants. http://www.cnps.org/
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I love how you are planning to incorporate gardening with your students. I think that is a great idea! I have also wondered how as teachers, we can go about planting a garden in our school and found a journal article on NSTA that really helps and provides great ideas for creating a garden with students.
This is the link: http://static.nsta.org/files/sc0806_14.pdf
It's called Teaching Through Trade Books: Growing a Garden.
Hope this helps.
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You can create a class garden, this can probably be set up in the classroom near a window. I have seen some teachers put a seed in a plastic bag and then taping it to the window; however I am sure this only works with certain plants which I have not educated myself on yet. Also, I would talk to administration about creating a school garden. If they are supportive of your idea which I am sure they will be, then you can have a little garden somewhere around the school. If you do talk to administration make sure you have a TEKS or objective to back you up as to why you find it important to have a garden. For example, if you are teaching 1st grade, there are objectives of the plant life cycle, so I would bring this to administration. Hope this helps, good luck!
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