Elementary science teacher Steve Tomsik feels that it is his primary job to get his students into the garden as much as possible because of the great extensions between knowledge and exploration.
Right Side Box:
Nutrition Program Highlights
The school now maintains a partnership with Wellness in the Schools, an organization that has facilitated a gradual change in lunch meals, and provides chefs and cooking interns who work with cafeteria staff to prepare healthy lunches. The lunch menu now offers freshly prepared meals (including an occasional special lunch of grass-fed beef) with a daily salad bar. They have also held parent-lunch days to show how the lunches have improved.
The school sponsors a Harvest Day each year in October to showcase food harvested from the garden. Students enjoy a special lunch (with available garden produce), tasting tables, visits from local farmers, and Garden to School Café programs. Pictures of the Harvest Day can be seen on the school’s website.
The National Gardening Association provides material assistance to youth and community garden programs with support from our generous sponsors. To date, 9,310 grants & awards worth $3.7 million reaching an estimated 1.4 million youth in the U.S. have been distributed through our organization. In 2005 we started collecting data to track the impact of our grants programs via a year-end evaluation summary completed by grant recipients. Below are some recent testimonials and results.
Photo courtesy of Fertile GroundWhen Massachusetts parent and environmental consultant Catherine Sands learned that a garden was slated for her daughter’s rural elementary school, she saw an opportunity. Why not use the plots as a springboard for enticing students to eat fresh food, connecting them to diverse communities, and introducing them to local aspects of food systems?
Right Side Box:
Fertile Ground
Over the years, Fertile Ground has grown from a single school pilot program to a consulting group able to “empower schools and families to make smart food choices, and to work together across race, class, and difference, improving their communities through school gardens, food celebrations, and caring for the land.” Intrigued? Learn more or contact Fertile Ground staff through the program’s Website.
“You're learning about different countries around the world so it’s like you're already creating peace by learning about them," says Seryn, a Montessori school student from Louisville, KY. The centerpiece of her living multicultural “textbook” is a schoolyard garden filled with crops that students and chefs turn into dishes from around the globe.
Right Side Box:
Peace Garden Materials and Grant
The Muhammad Ali Peace Garden program and grant was created to help teach children to learn about respect for diverse cultures and nutrition by raising their own food with plants from different countries. It is sponsored by Yum! Brands, which has committed $100,000 over four years as an extension of its World hunger Relief effort. Educators around the world can download a free teacher’s guide and grant application forms (available in six languages) by visiting My Peace Garden or National Gardening Association’s Peace Garden Grant page. Hurry! The next grant application deadline is January 5, 2011.
It’s amazing how the holiday season hits us earlier every year. It is a shock to see the overnight transition from the Halloween décor at the local stores to dazzling displays of red and green merchandise, as if some momentous event were imminent.
James Doyiakos, environmental science teacher at Roald Amundsen High School in northwest Chicago, figured out how to turn an invasive plant problem into a creative lesson to connect his 150 freshman students with nature—by making wreaths.
Like many other garden-related projects, 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.
Grapevines are a popular base. If you want to use grapevine, it’s better to cut it before the first hard frost. Soak it in water to make it more pliable. If it won’t be used right away, coil it in a round tub or laundry basket to help it keep its shape.
As 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.
