EE Activities - School Gardens

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Springtime is here! A wonderful way to get children interested in the environment is to get them digging and growing. Gardening not only provides students with a chance to learn about life cycles and ecosystems, but it also develops their ability to solve problems and work collaboratively. Whether you're looking to spruce up your existing garden or planning for next year, these sites can help you nurture a fascination with nature in your students.

KidsGardening.org

This National Gardening Association site is a wealth of information for teachers and parents who want to use gardening as an educational tool. Some of the site’s highlights include a parent’s primer, a searchable database of classroom activities, information on youth gardening grants, and a discussion forum to exchange gardening stories and advice.

School Gardens

A project of Texas A&M University, this site provides a good introduction to school gardening. Categories include a step by step guide to building a school garden, ideas for themes and curricula, and ways to incorporate nutrition education into gardening. Also includes an outline of a year's worth of weekly gardening lesson plans.

Schoolyard Habitats

The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) created the Schoolyard Habitats project to help schools, teachers, students and community members in using school grounds as learning sites and for wildlife conservation. NWF recognizes the efforts of schools across the country by certifying schools that provide essential habitat for wildlife, as well as schools that integrate the use of their sites as teaching tools into their curriculum.

Further Resources:

City farmer: School Gardens: This site links to current and past school gardening projects and contains information on books,organizations and other resources. Provided by City Farmer, Canada's Office of Urban Agriculture.

Project WILD Materials: The book, WILD School Sites: A Guide to Preparing for Habitat Improvement Projects on School Grounds, and the video, Exploring School Nature Areas, are available to order from Project WILD.

School Gardens Discussion Forum: A forum for discussing school garden issues open to all who are interested in or are participating in school garden creation, use, maintenance or study.

Butterfly Gardening for Your School ~ Texas

May 2, 2009 ~ Dallas, Texas

Teachers earn 6 CPE credits at this Texas Discovery Garden Workshop. Learn about native butterflies, the nectar and host plants needed for native butterflies lifecycles, resources for developing schoolyard butterfly habitats, TEKS and TAKS connections, plus other outdoor classroom activities. Get your butterfly garden started with a tray of free plants for your certified butterfly habitat.
The URL is: http://www.texasdiscoverygardens.org/upcoming_even...

4-H Children's Garden Virtual Tour

Take your students on a virtual tour of Michigan State University's 4-H Children's Garden with 56 individual themes. Visit the Imagination Garden, Butterfly Garden, Treehouse area, and the Alice in Wonderland maze!
The URL is: http://4hgarden.msu.edu/kidstour/tour.html

Long Island School takes classroom into the garden

In the courtyard of South Country’s Frank P. Long Intermediate School, New York, there is a beautiful garden lush with decorative flowers, shrubs, trees, and ornamental decorations. The garden, which expanded from a small plot to the entire courtyard over the past four years, is the result of the school’s 4th & 5th grader’s Garden Club. Frank P. Long teacher Peter Cisek initiated the program with a $500 grant from radio station WBAB for educators who needed seed money to start a special program and is receiving yearly assistance from the South Country Education Foundation. The Garden Club is totally self-sustaining, and not funded by the school budget.
The URL is: http://www.southcountry.org/LONG/garden.htm

School Grounds Transformation

Complete guide to schoolground greening projects - from conception to planning to implementation.
The URL is: http://www.biodiversityonline.ca/schoolgrounds/

School Garden Wizard

Online guide for grades K-8, to help start a school learning garden or enrich an existing program. Features expert advice on getting support for a garden program, lesson plans and guidance for teaching to standards in the garden, practical gardening advice and more.
The URL is: http://www.schoolgardenwizard.org/

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