Weather won’t stop us!

Posted on March 11, 2017 by beanstalk

What happens when the weather makes it challenging to take class outside and into the school garden? We bring the garden inside to class! Last week Gateway Greening Youth Educator Lucy Herleth, when faced with some of St. Louis’ recent cold and windy weather, brought the garden into the Autistic classroom at Clay Elementary School.

The plan for the day had been to work with students in the Autistic Classroom to plant peas as part of the First Peas to the Table competition. This yearly event challenges elementary students throughout St. Louis City and County to plant peas in their school garden. Although the students are competing for a variety of awards, the main goal is to see who can harvest their peas first, just like Thomas Jefferson did.

When weather changed the day’s plans Miss Lucy opted to bring the lesson inside instead, teaching students how peas grow in the garden and the different names of the plant parts through fun activities.

Author Susan Grigsby’s book, First Peas to the Table, serves as the inspiration for Gateway Greening’s annual First Peas to the Table competition for elementary students throughout St. Louis.

First, the students pretended to be itty-bitty seeds in the soil, waiting for warm weather and rain to tell us it was time to “wake up.” Then, everyone slowly began to stretch out as they began to grow stems and leaves that stretch-stretch-stretched for the sky! With everyone wide awake and ready to listen, it was time for a closer look at plant parts using real plants!

Earlier in the morning, Miss Lucy discovered that several turnips had managed to over winter in the school garden and were thriving. By harvesting a few of the turnips and bringing them indoors: leaves, stems, roots, soil and all, the students were able to apply what they had just learned from “growing like peas.” Each student explored the turnip plants, using their hands to feel the string-like root hairs and to knock on the sturdy taproot. Several ruffled the leaves and leaned in close to smell them just as we would a bouquet of fresh flowers. And once everyone had finished to explore the turnips’ outsides, the class washed and dried them so that each student could taste both roots and greens, right there in the classroom. All of the students had fun using descriptive words to tell Miss Lucy what they thought of the taste.

Blog - Weather won't stop us 02 — Turnips overwintered in Clay Elementary’s School Garden – the perfect prop for an indoor lesson about plant parts!

The weather may not have co-operated, but that didn’t stop the students in the Autistic Classroom at Clay Elementary! They love to get hands-on and elbow deep in plants and soil just like any other kid their age, and indoor days are no exception.

Learn More:

Looking for more ways to incorporate the school garden into your lesson plan? Stop by:

Gateway Greening’s Workshops for Educators page to explore monthly workshops that address the challenges and opportunities represented by teaching in school gardens
The Gateway Greening Educators Facebook group to connect with other teachers throughout St. Louis with similar interests in school gardens
Check out our In the School Garden Youtube playlist for short, actionable how-to videos that are seasonally relevant.

Teacher Spotlight on LaTosha Hayes of Gateway Elementary

Posted on February 24, 2017 by beanstalk

Interview with LaTosha Hayes, 4th grade teacher at Gateway Elementary in St. Louis, MO, about how she personally became involved with the school’s garden.

How long have you been gardening?

This will be my first full year. A few years ago, another group came in and started working with us in the greenhouse but that wasn’t a full year.

What sparked your interest?

Learning about the value of eating healthy and the harm it causes when we don’t. I’ve been a teacher for 11 years and have come to realize that we’re targeting curriculum backward. “Data Driven” is a mantra that’s heard in many districts. Unfortunately not too many schools or districts are focused on many factors that impact education such as nutrition.

We had a dental clinic visit the school one time and there were kids with multiple cavities, it was when I learned what a root canal was, and obviously it all came back to what the kids are eating and their oral hygiene. We know a lot of the things are the shelves are not good for kids and so they don’t have the nutrients that they need to come to school ready to learn. Some kids are inattentive, hyperactive, unmotivated, tired, and/or hungry. Even though we know the importance of eating healthy foods and how it can impact student’s education, teachers are still evaluated on classroom management and whether students achieve academic success. We need to focus on what’s literally going into them. We can help kids succeed by educating them about food and preparation. Taking students outside to garden lets them get natural sunlight, burn calories, explore, care for living things, and what everyone loves to do – EAT. I think all students prefer edible assignments.

We need nutrition education as much as PE and counselors and it needs to start in Pre-K. Teaching kids how to grow and cook their food and that will bring families back to the kitchen table. It is prevention rather than intervention and treatment for diet related illnesses.

What is the most worthwhile part of gardening with your class?

Empowering students through nutrition and developing healthy habits that can positively impact generations to come, having them do something other than play video games and watching TV at home, to have an interest in growing their own food. I look forward to having them investigate and come up with questions. I think that they will start making changes in their lives and share it with others and it will have a domino effect on the community. I want students to talk to each other but I want them to talk about healthy things, like food.

The other thing that is good about this process is that students are learning that I am still a student as well. They are observing that even adults are learning and we all have road blocks and anxiety and need others to help us learn.

I am looking forward to learning more about the science of plants (composting, cross pollination, etc.) and getting out of the classroom, getting students out of their seats. That is where education really starts, from birth, genuine learning occurs in the home, neighborhood, and community.

Kids learning how to garden will yield benefits in the classroom because students will have better nutrition and be better rested.

What are you looking forward to planting with your class?

We are going to grow peas but I want to grow a bit of everything, maybe blueberries. I definitely want to grow green leafy vegetables, spinach, collards, kale, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, melons. I want a colorful garden so students will be inspired to have a colorful plate and learn which fruit or vegetable is providing what nutrient.

What do teachers need most in order to use a school garden successfully?

A curriculum. All of the teachers I’ve talked to have an interest but don’t have the know-how and need support. Curriculum and support from GGI. It would be great if the district adopted a garden/nutrition curriculum for elementary school so children would develop healthy habits.

Interview with LaTosha Hayes conducted by Kathleen Carson, Gateway Greening Education Manager, in February 2017.

Students Planning School Garden Crops

Posted on February 10, 2017 by beanstalk

In preparation for the fast approaching growing season, 2nd and 3rd graders at Mallinckrodt Academy have been making some important decisions about what they want to grow in their school garden this year.

Gateway Greening has an excellent planting calendar to show a when different varieties of vegetables can be started indoors, transplanted or directly sown into the garden, their grow time and even when students should harvest.

The second graders formed groups, and were offered a selection of pictures of vegetables cut from old seed catalogs. The students needed to work together to come to an agreement as to what crop they would grow. Next came locating the plant on the planting calendar and discovering necessary information for growing the crop they chose by utilizing the key. “The key unlocks it all!” explained one student.

Each group will have a chance to share their findings and tape the picture of their chosen veggie to the month when we need to start planting.

Students at Mallinckrodt Academy using a planting calendar to plan their 2017 crops for the school garden.

The third graders took this a step further, deciding how they would make the most of their available garden space based on the information from the graph. The students applied what they learned about sequential planting to choose three vegetables that will be able to grow in the same space based on the time they are planted and harvested. In this way, the students will be able to grow 3 separate crops in the garden this year.

In addition to being a great way to involve the Mallinckrodt Academy students in the ownership of their garden, this lesson encourages students to learn and practice: interpreting information from graphs, collaborating with group members, public speaking, and decision making. The school garden is a great place to learn and practice these skills which are all transferable to other areas in the classroom and everyday life.

Written by Meg Holmes, Gateway Greening Youth Educator

VermiComposting at Gateway Elementary

Posted on January 27, 2017 by beanstalk

Although the school gardens may be resting, Seed to STEM is growing; Gateway Greening is now working directly with fourth grade classes at Gateway Elementary. Gateway Greening and the fourth graders are full of enthusiasm for the new partnership, which is fortunate since January is all about energy!

GG Youth Educator Lucy introduces Gateway Elementary 4th Graders to VermiComposting and forms of Energy.

The Gateway Greening Education Team has been hard at work building off of classroom lessons about different forms of energy to bring energy to life in the garden and classroom. The fourth graders searched for forms of energy inside and out. They discovered a chilly, wintry day is the best time to explore how to use thermal energy to get warm. Then the students were ready to get their hands dirty to see energy conservation in action.

Students discovering vermicomposting at Gateway Elementary

Discussions about energy and indoor lessons are the perfect time to introduce worms and vermicomposting. Vermicomposting systems are easy to set up in the classroom and are a great jumping off point for lessons on energy use, decomposition, habitat, and more. The lesson began when the students first observed a completed composting worm bin system and determined what made it a functional habitat for red wiggler worms. Each student had a chance to smell, touch, and study the food, worms, and soil in the compost bin. They realized that the “soil” was actually worm castings: nutrient rich worm poop. (The general reaction was, you guessed it: “Gross!”) For some fourth graders it was their first time holding a worm. Other students excitedly held and measured their worms.

Once the students understood how vermicomposting worked, they created their own mini composting bins. Using plastic containers, newspaper, and leaves, they put together what they thought would be the best possible habitat for the red wigglers. After moistening the shredded newspaper and adding air holes, the students introduced the worms to their new habitats. The last class of the day even added leftover vegetable scraps from the cafeteria to the bins for the worms to feast on.

In the coming weeks, the fourth graders at Gateway Elementary will observe how the worms use the vegetable scraps. They will make connections between conserving energy and using food waste to benefit the garden. Once the students move their worms to a larger vermicomposting system, they will start participating in the Gateway Greening Compost Challenge. Will they produce more compost or more food waste than your school?

By Lucy Herleth, Gateway Greening Youth Educator

Pre-School Birding at Clay Elementary

Posted on January 2, 2017 by beanstalk

This past December, the kindergartners and preschoolers at Clay Elementary became expert birders!

As December finally started getting chilly, we noticed that the bees and worms that just a month ago buzzed and wiggled around, were nowhere to be seen! However, after searching high and low we discovered many sparrows, chickadees, and cardinals still making the schoolyard their home.

To become expert birders, the first thing we did was investigate if the garden was a suitable home for birds. Along the way, we learned that “habitat” is a science word for home and that the seeds from the native plants in the nearby rain garden provided food for the birds. To help make a better habitat for our bird friends, the preschoolers and kindergarteners created bird feeders.

Then, the students used their science eyes and ears to observe birds. They mimicked different bird calls and flight. They loved practicing their flapping and soaring skills while looking for birds on the playground! The hardest part of birding for the kindergarteners and preschoolers was practicing the quiet, stealthy walk of a birder, to not scare the animals. We looked all over the garden and saw cardinals and sparrows in trees and flying high above the schools. To wrap up the month of birding, the preschoolers learned what make a bird a bird and created their own feathers. The kindergarteners noticed nests were a sign of birds, so they created their own nests to take home.

Birding was an engaging theme to get younger students outside and making observations when the garden is not particularly active With birds, the preschoolers were able to act as scientists, artists, and explorers. The students practiced making scientific questions, created avian inspired art, and kinesthetically mimicked the flight of birds. They were able to be imaginative and use their important sense of awe and wonder, while learning scientific skills along the way! The best part of birding is that it can be done anywhere, whether that’s the school garden or the urban backyard. The students took their birding skills home and practiced spotting birds throughout the winter break!

By Lucy Herleth, Gateway Greening Youth Educator

Looking for more seasonal lessons and activities for students to do in the school garden? Stop by Gateway Greening’s YouTube channel to explore our “This Week in the School Garden” video series or reach out to our Education Team with questions!

This #GivingTuesday we’re raising $5,000 to support Dig It STL! (2)

Posted on November 28, 2016 by beanstalk

“My name is Kierra Graves, and I am a member of the 2016 Dig It crew. I am a rising senior of MICDS. Before beginning the Dig It program I assumed that I would be planting flowers and digging up dirt around the city. I had been referred to this job by a co-worker’s family member so I didn’t know much about what Dig It did in general. I also had some anxiety about having to work in the heat and being the “new girl” because I came later than most of the crew.

After my first day on the farm I realized this program was much more than planting flowers for a check. I quickly discovered that the crewmembers interacted more like siblings or cousins rather than co-workers. Although I had jobs where people were close I [had] never seen everyone get along so well. Also, I realized that every workshop, field trip, and task was personally helpful to me because everything I was learning could be applied to and improve the quality of my life.

The last full week of the program proved to be the most important week for me. My biggest take away from the Dig It program 2016 is appreciating my ability to make a change and having joy in doing so.

On the last Friday, as I was washing harvest crates, I really began to appreciate the work we all did here. Watching the food being packed and put into the truck made the fact that we did [the] work to feed real people. I gained so much satisfaction knowing what I was doing had a purpose. It never hit me until then that the work I put in, that we put in impacted the lives of so many people. All in all, you never know how much your actions could bless others, whether you see it or not.”

-Kierra, Dig It Crew Member 2016

Through Dig It, high school students develop agricultural and ecosystem knowledge, community leadership skills, public speaking skills, and passion for environmental stewardship.

2016 saw the expansion of Dig It STL from a summer teen employment opportunity into a year round program! Dig It STL’s expansion has been partially funded through a multi-year grant, but we need your help to fill the gap! Please consider helping us reach our goal of $5,000 by giving a gift during this #GivingTuesday. Make a difference in the life of a St. Louis teen! #GivingTuesday

Support Dig It STL this Giving Tuesday! (2016)

Posted on November 28, 2016 by beanstalk

This Giving Tuesday we’re raising $5,000 to support Dig It STL!

2016 saw such demand for our summer teen employment program, Dig It STL, that we’ve decided to expand it to a year-round program! Now, students can continue to get hands on with diverse urban agriculture and conservation initiatives around the city throughout the school year. Through Dig It, high school students develop agricultural and ecosystem knowledge, community leadership skills, public speaking skills, and passion for environmental stewardship, all while learning valuable soft job skills and earning a paycheck.

Dig It STL’s expansion has been partially funded through a multi-year grant, but we need your help to fill the gap! Please consider helping us reach our goal of $5,000 by giving a gift on November 29th- Giving Tuesday. Make a difference in the life of a St. Louis teen!

“My name is Myra and I have been working at Gateway Greening for a year and I am an alumnus for various things. I’m an Alumni intern, Dig It crew member and leader. I am 19 years old an I’m an undecided sophomore student at the University of Missouri St. Louis. For the last year I have been particularizing on what to study in college and by working with Gateway Greening I have noticed that I enjoy working outdoors and that I enjoy science more than any other specialty. I know that I will decide one day but sometimes I feel like I can’t because I don’t believe in myself as much as I should.

My defining moment was when I was offered the position to be a crew leader for the 2016 Dig It crew. When I was first offered the position I kept pushing it off because I didn’t think I would make a good leader. So after a few weeks I thought to myself if someone I only knew for a few months trusts me to take a higher position as a leader, then why shouldn’t I? So I decided to take the offer because my great, supportive supervisor, Carolyn believed in me more than I believed in myself. To this day I thank her for that push out of the tree and allowing me to fly to learn and develop self-confidence and other skills the position pushed me to have.”

-Myra, Dig It Crew Leader 2016

You can help the Dig It STL program continue to flourish by participating in #GivingTuesday on Tuesday, November 29! Click here to donate.

Celebrate National Farm to School Month in October

Posted on September 21, 2016 by beanstalk

October is National Farm to School Month, a time to celebrate connections happening all over the country between schools and local food!

Farm to school enriches the connection communities have with fresh, healthy food and local food producers by changing food purchasing and education practices at schools and early care and education settings. Students gain access to healthy, local foods as well as educational opportunities such as school gardens, cooking lessons, and farm field trips.

Over the past decade, the farm to school movement has exploded across the United States, reaching millions of students in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Farm to school is an important tool in the fight against childhood obesity and food insecurity. In addition to improving child health, when schools buy local, they create new markets for local and regional farmers and contribute to vibrant communities, a win-win-win scenario!

Farm to School – Across the Nation

In March, the USDA released the results of its 2015 Farm to School Census, and the results are exciting!

In 2015 approximately 42,587 schools across the United States actively participated in Farm to School programs, reaching 23.6 million students nationwide.
During the 2013-2014 school year, participating schools purchased $789 million worth of local products from food producers – farmers, ranchers, and even fishermen!
54% of the 5,254 school districts surveyed reported having at least one edible school garden. (In the 2013-14 school year, they reported 7,101 active school gardens providing fresh food and education opportunities!)

Farm to School – What’s happening in Missouri?

According to the 2015 Missouri Farm to School Survey, at least 911 schools (143 school districts or private schools) used locally grown food in school meals or snacks during the 2014-2015 school year, with the average school district spending 3% of their budget on local products.
In the 2009-10 school year, the most popular locally grown items purchased in Missouri Farm to School programs were apples, melons, cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers.
The Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 authorized and provided funding to the USDA to establish a Farm to School Program to provide grants and technical assistance in implementing farm to school programs to improve access to local foods in eligible schools.
In 2016 the School District of Springfield R-12 was awarded just over $90,000 to increase student access to locally sourced produce and expand food and nutrition education by the USDA.

Farm to School – What’s happening in STL?

In 2016, the Ferguson-Florissant School District was awarded $91,500 to partner with St. Louis University and local farms to integrate and expand its farm to school program.
Gateway Greening currently supports 65 school gardens across 19 school districts in St. Louis. 25 of those school gardens are at St. Louis Public Schools! Over 600 teachers across the region use these gardens as outdoor laboratories, serving 12,000 students.
Gateway Greening youth educators are working with 300 students each week in their school gardens as part of the Seed to STEM program. These students will be out having a Farm to School Harvest Party in October!
Fifteen youth participated in Gateway Greening’s teen employment program, Dig It STL, on the Gateway Greening Urban Farm this summer. 45 additional youth participated in other Youth Conservation Corps programs at YCC member organizations, including EarthDance and Seeds of Hope Farms. These students learned about soil, plant science, nutrition and teamwork while fully engaging in the work of the farm from planting to harvest to selling at North City Farmers’ Market… and weeding, lots and lots of weeding.

The 2016 National Farm to School Month theme, One Small Step, will highlight the simple ways anyone can get informed, get involved and take action to advance farm to school in their own communities and across the country. Join the celebrations by signing the One Small Step pledge and take one small step to support healthy kids, thriving farmers and vibrant communities this October.

Whether you are a food service professional, a farmer, a teacher or a food-loving family, there are plenty of ways to celebrate and get involved in National Farm to School Month! The National Farm to School Network offers a variety of free resources on its website, www.farmtoschool.org, including posters, stickers and a communications toolkit.

Learn more about National Farm to School Month, how you can get involved, and sign the pledge by visiting www.farmtoschool.org.

Summer Maintenance in the School Garden

Posted on September 21, 2016 by beanstalk

It’s a tough reality that the most active growing period in the garden coincides with summer break – when teachers and students are gone. It can be challenging to keep crops thriving without a dedicated caretaker to weed and water through the hottest days of summer. So how do successful school garden programs keep their crops growing and their gardens beautiful throughout the summer? As the summer of 2016 winds down, the Gateway Greening Educators take a look at some of the most successful school garden strategies they saw this year.

Start with a Plan

Garden Leaders and Educators can set their school garden up for success by planning ahead in spring. Start by considering your garden’s community: who are the key supporters? Volunteers? What community resources could your garden connect with for assistance?

Leveraging Community

Second grade teacher Angela Vaughn of Shaw VPA Elementary knows that no school garden is maintenance free during the summer months. Her solution was tap into the school garden’s existing community to create a ‘duty-roster’ for summer. Before school let out for the long break, Vaughn partnered with Gateway Greening Educator Punita Patel to ask students and their families to adopt the garden for one week during the summer. In this way, families could take turns weeding, watering and harvesting. It’s a great system that allows students to see how their plants are doing while sharing their enthusiasm and new-found knowledge with their families

The garden also drew in volunteers from the surrounding neighborhood who stopped in to weed, water, and even to visit with their neighbors. Since every summer helper is encouraged to take home any of the produce they harvest, very little goes to waste – even when school’s out for summer!

Tips for creating a summer maintenance schedule:

1. Before school lets out for break, ask students and their families to adopt the garden for as little as a day or as much as a week, with the reward of taking anything they harvest home! Use sign-up sheets to hold everyone accountable.

2. Ask fellow teachers to get involved! It never hurts to have an extra pair of eyes checking for droopy plants in need of water!

3. Reach out to the surrounding community. Often, neighbors are one of a school garden’s most valuable long-term volunteers!

The Sweet Potato Challenge

Beyond the schedule, Shaw VPA also makes the most of the summer growing season by participating in the Sweet Potato Challenge. This yearly competition starts in May, when teachers take their students outside to plant their slips (sweet potato starts) in the garden. Over the summer the sweet potato plants grow quickly, sprouting attractive green vines that shade the soil, reducing evaporation and keeping the soil moist longer. At the same time, the vines help to suppress weeds, helping to keep summer garden maintenance low.

One of the great things about this challenge is that the sweet potatoes are ready to harvest in October, meaning the kids get to watch the last few months of their growth and to see, touch and taste the results of their work from the previous spring. The competition ends as students harvest and weigh their crops, competing against other schools to win the coveted first place in one of three categories: Largest Harvest (lbs), Weirdest Potato Shape, and Largest Potato!

Want to learn more about the Sweet Potato Challenge? Check out Shaw VPA teacher Angela Vaughn’s story of her students participating in the Sweet Potato Challenge last year here.

Host Garden Parties

This past summer the PTO at Mallinckrodt Academy for Gifted Instruction (MAGI) put a new spin on garden parties by inviting students, their families, and even the surrounding neighbors to spend Tuesday evenings with them in the school garden!

Each garden party was almost like a small festival, with kids excitedly monitoring how their plants were doing, small food demonstrations from fellow gardeners and an ever changing variety of activities! A few of our staff favorites were:

Potluck dinners that resulted in recipe swaps between families
Local vendors selling cupcakes and pizza by the slice
Food Truck!
Yoga class for all ages
Music & Dancing – One night, there was even a live band!
Sprinklers for the kids to play in (that watered the garden at the same time!)

The garden parties at MAGI turned out to be a great way to keep families engaged not only at the school, but also in the garden. Each week students were encouraged to spend some time weeding and harvesting their crops. They then turned around and sold the food to their families and neighbors. Parents had fun helping the kids to set reasonable prices on each crop by sharing what they would expect to pay for the same thing at their local grocery stores, and the proceeds went on to the PTO to help fund future events and activities. By the end of June, the MAGI school garden was well cared for, well known, and had more community buy-in than it had at the end of the school year!

Tips for Hosting a School Garden Party:

Start simple – a sprinkler and a potluck meal can be a blast for people of all ages!
Help the kids set up a market stall – not only does it encourage garden maintenance, but it’s a great way to keep kids learning simple money handling and business skills while providing healthy food to the local community.
Look to your community – is there a parent who could lead an activity one night? Is there a local restaurant or bakery that would be willing to donate food or treats?

Connect with Local Volunteers

Increasing educational opportunities for kids is a cause everyone can get behind – and that includes in the school garden! Clay Elementary School’s Cougar Garden in Hyde Park Neighborhood demonstrated the power of connecting with community in several ways this summer.

Encourage Neighborhood Involvement

Since starting the Seed to STEM program at Clay in 2013, summer maintenance has always been a challenge. This year three individuals from the surrounding neighborhood offered to help keep up with garden tasks while the students were away on break, and the garden leaders were open to it. These 3 volunteers were a major asset to the garden and did a fantastic job caring for the garden despite several challenges including tool theft.,By being open to listening and discussing the youth garden’s needs when neighbors ask about volunteering, school gardens can develop a strong network of locally based volunteers.

Connect with Organizations

Clay’s Cougar Garden also benefits from fostering relationships with local organizations, like Link STL.

In response to Hyde Park Neighborhood’s unique community challenges, 2015 saw the founding of Link STL – a grassroots, community organizing entity that specializes in connecting people to opportunities.

This connection led to several great partnerships in 2016, starting with a local kids summer camp that came to explore and help in the garden once a week throughout the month of June. In this case, the summer camp gained a safe space for the campers to play and learn outside. The garden in turn saw active use during a time when it’s normally under-utilized, and also received a bit of help with weeding and watering. The campers even creatively re-painted the street planters with fun designs!

The connection with Link STL also led to a large work day in the Cougar Garden when volunteers from Rise STL and BAMSL Young Lawyers Division pitched in to help prepare the garden for the beginning of school. The work day came about when Rise STL and BAMSL approached Link STL about the possibility of founding a garden in Hyde Park, and were surprised to discover there was an existing garden that could use their help. Large groups of volunteers from both organizations spent a day weeding, mulching and watering the vegetable beds, the pollinator garden, and even helped to re-lay a mulch pathway into the orchard.

By connecting with both neighbors and local organizations, Clay Elementary School’s Cougar Garden was able to take advantage of many volunteer and educational opportunities that it may not have had access to otherwise. Taking the time to explore who is in your neighborhood and develop partnerships can be time and energy well spent in the long run.

The Takeaway

Any school garden can successfully create a summer maintenance program that keeps the garden active and attractive even over the longest school break. Try implementing one or more of the techniques that kept Shaw VPA, Mallinckrodt, and Clay school gardens growing!

Plan Ahead – Use Spring to identify key volunteers, supporters, and activities for the summer
Connect: Extend beyond the school by connecting with neighbors, neighborhood organizations and local businesses to find and cultivate volunteer assistance
Get Active: Participate in an challenge, host an event, create a pop-up farm stand, or invite other groups into the garden to keep the space active and growing over summer break
Review: At the end of summer, ask what worked? What didn’t? Write down what you learned for next year!

September Teacher Spotlight: “Let’s Get Dirty!”

Posted on September 20, 2016 by beanstalk

We want to highlight Nina Warren, a kindergarten teacher at Clay Elementary whose class has been a part of our Seed to STEM progam for several years. Ms. Warren is passionate about getting kids in the dirt, and after you read her interview, you will be too.

What’s your favorite story from taking your class out to the garden?

Nina Warren: “One of my favorite stories is teaching kids about trees. They have life like we do, and they don’t like to be poked and prodded just like we don’t like to be poked and prodded. They need love and care just like we do.

“One day, we were in the garden sitting in the grass, and the kids were pulling all the grass out and they brought it inside. When we got in, the grass was all shriveled and brown, and they were asking me, “Ms Warren, why is the grass dead??” We talked about how plants are alive, and if we pull them out of where they’re growing, the plants die. That’s something kids need to know.”

What is the biggest impact of taking your students outside to the garden?

Nina Warren: “Monday! Monday was the biggest impact. They were so excited about the peas that they planted in the ground. They remembered actually putting their fingers in the ground for those peas, and when they pulled [the peas] off, they said, “We planted these, Ms. Warren! We planted these! This is what we did!” and I was like, “I know! I know!”

“Bria doesn’t like peas, but the fact we planted them was the only reason why she ate them. These are the things we planted a while back, and now they’re grown. If more parents had gardens in their backyards, maybe more of our children would eat fruits and vegetables.

“The peas were one of the best things. I took pictures of it because it was so amazing. It made it all worth it. This is what the garden is all about. “

What do teachers need the most to be successful in the garden?

Nina Warren: “[Teachers are] so busy with all the other stuff we have going on, what will happen is we’ll be like, “We’ll just skip garden today, there’s so much stuff to do and we just don’t have time.” Because you left [the class some garden curriculum], I could read the plan and know what to expect when the students are out there. Knowing there is a plan in place beforehand so there’s not so much prep work for us, we can allow the kids to go out there and have the a lesson and then let them go out and explore nature.

What’s your favorite thing to plant or watch grow?

Nina Warren: My favorite thing to watch grow are the snap peas, because lettuce just looks like grass but the peas really do change and grow. We put a lot of work into growing those peas—we put our fingers in the dirt to plant the seeds, we put sticks in the ground for the trellises, we put the yarn around the sticks for the peas to climb, and they grew up them, and then all of a sudden the peas came out of nowhere. Kids look for detail, and the peas had lots of details to observe as they grew.

What advice would you give teachers who want to bring their classes outdoors?

Nina Warren: “If kids find things, allow them to explore. Don’t let them know if you’re afraid. If you’re afraid, they’ll be afraid. At recess a few weeks ago, one of my students found a huge hairy black spider. She wasn’t afraid- she was playing with it, letting it crawl up and down her arms, showing the other kids. I was terrified but I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want her to be afraid.

“I think women especially tend to say, “Ew, kill that bug, get it off me, I don’t want to get dirty and I don’t want my kids to come home dirty.” Well guess what? Kids are supposed to be dirty! They’re children. Otherwise, what’s the point? If they’re dirty, that means they are touching, feeling, and experiencing the world around them.

“I have parents who send their kids to school in sandals. I tell them, “Sandals aren’t made for school. They need shoes they can explore and get dirty in.” We’re too busy trying to stay clean—let’s get dirty!”