[Community_garden] School Garden Cirriculum

Tue Oct 9 22:59:54 EDT 2007

Hi, Jessica,

My favorite has long been LifeLab,

 http://www.lifelab.org

They've got lots of experience, and it shows. Get
yourself some songs by the Banana Slug String Band,
and you'll have a garden program to die for. Every
child deserves to learn "Dirt Made My Lunch".

http://www.bananaslugstringband.com

North Carolina Agricultural and Technical (NCAT)
University Extension profs Bob Williamson and Ellen
Smoak have created a peachy curriculum, called "Down
To Earth". Here's that, plus a bunch of other NC
links:

http://www.learnnc.org/search?phrase=gardening

The NCAT folks teamed up with Garden Mosaics, and
Mosaics also has some useful stuff, especially some
individual handouts and their overall philosophy of
community exploration and generational bridging
through gardening.

http://www.gardenmosaics.cornell.edu/index.htm

Of course, if you want inspiration, can't beat Alice
Waters' site, The Edible Schoolyard, which does
gardening/preparing/eating. 

http://www.edibleschoolyard.org/homepage.html

Then there is the Food Project. Greatly inspiring,
though not a curriculum per se. It does touch on the
key topic of "sustainability" (makes a good thematic
unit).

http://www.thefoodproject.org

I also like Nation Gardening Assn's site, Kids
Gardening (but, practically as a teacher, I like
LifeLab more...). NGA doesn't do things in a small
way, be ready for lots of info. The thing I don't so
much like about them is how they "push" their
products, which include contraptions for growing
plants indoors in classrooms under florescent grow
lights. This may be the best you can get in some urban
neighborhoods, and the NGA grow light setup is a very
nice one  (not cheap, though). 

However, most teachers wouldn't use them in my
district (don't know why). I did, but kept wondering
if I was training the next generation of indoor
growers, who'd grow up to become subscribers to High
Times and Hydroponics Weekly. Hey, it's good money -
maybe they'll get so rich they'll be able to move to
Amsterdam.

I digress.

Both Waldorf Schools and Montessori have strong garden
components was well in their overall holistic approach
to teaching.

About Jr. Master Gardeners and 4H, these are both well
intended programs from Extension, which is a
well-intended outfit overall. Their effectiveness
depends directly on the quality of the volunteers
(usually) or agent who conduct the program. Some are
excellent. Others are pretty chemically dependent (in
the agricultural sense). A few don't really seem to
like gardening much or have much experience, and the
children never see a living plant or touch a seed.
Powerpoint does not a garden grow.

Good luck, sounds exciting, keep us posted.

Don Boekelheide
Charlotte, NC

(used to be a teacher - can you tell?)

> Message: 1
> Date: Tue, 9 Oct 2007 06:52:06 -0700 (PDT)
> From: jessica sumner <jessicasumner at yahoo.com>
> Subject: [Community_garden] School Garden Cirriculum
> To: community_garden at list.communitygarden.org
> Message-ID:
> <315416.14685.qm at web51601.mail.re2.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
> 
> I am a community garden coordinator from Memphis TN
> and am looking for some good cirriculums for school
> gardens. I haven't been able to find one that is
> comprehensive enough. I need to learn about start-up
> too. If anyone can point me in the right direction,
> I'd be very grateful.
> Thanks,
> 
> Jessica Sumner
> Grow Memphis Garden Coordinator
> 1000 S. Cooper
> Memphis TN, 38104
> 901.725.4990 (office)
> 901-691-5271 (cell)
> 
> 
>      
>
____________________________________________________________________________________
> Don't let your dream ride pass you by. Make it a
> reality with Yahoo! Autos.
> http://autos.yahoo.com/index.html
>  
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 2
> Date: Tue, 9 Oct 2007 09:39:28 -0500
> From: Kimberly Andrews <klandrews at msn.com>
> Subject: Re: [Community_garden] School Garden
> Curriculum
> To: <community_garden at list.communitygarden.org>
> Message-ID:
> <BAY105-W31880C8959C881AE458AA4BAA50 at phx.gbl>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
> 
> 
> Jessica,
>  
> One of the best school curriculums is the Junior
> Master Gardener Program.  This program is quite
> comprehensive for the elementary (developed first)
> and middle school age groups.  A high school version
> is being developed, but is not ready yet; however,
> it is easy to alter the middle school program to
> adapt it to that level.   The email website for this
> program is http://jmgkids.us/.  
>  
> There are also specialty programs on Literature in
> the Garden, Wildlife in the Garden, and Nutrition in
> the Garden that can be used as stand alone programs
> or integrated with the basic program.  The
> elementary program has workbooks, but that can be
> too expensive for some budgets to purchase one for
> each student.  You can do the program without using
> the workbooks, or purchase one workbook and then
> make your own worksheets.
>  
> To obtain help with the program you can contact your
> local County Extension Office and its Master
> Gardener Association.
>  
> Kim Andrews
> Coppell Community Garden
>  
>  
>  
> > Date: Tue, 9 Oct 2007 06:52:06 -0700> From:
> jessicasumner at yahoo.com> To:
> community_garden at list.communitygarden.org> Subject:
> [Community_garden] School Garden Cirriculum> > I am
> a community garden coordinator from Memphis TN> and
> am looking for some good cirriculums for school>
> gardens. I haven't been able to find one that is>
> comprehensive enough. I need to learn about
> start-up> too. If anyone can point me in the right
> direction,> I'd be very grateful.> Thanks,> >
> Jessica Sumner> Grow Memphis Garden Coordinator>
> 1000 S. Cooper> Memphis TN, 38104> 901.725.4990
> (office)> 901-691-5271 (cell)> > >
>
____________________________________________________________________________________>
> Don't let your dream ride pass you by. Make it a
> reality with Yahoo! Autos.>
> http://autos.yahoo.com/index.html> > > > >
> _______________________________________________> The
> American Community Gardening Association listserve
> is only one of ACGA's services to community
> gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find
> out how to join, please go to
> http://www.communitygarden.org> > To post an e-mail
> to the list:
> community_garden at list.communitygarden.org> > To
> subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription:
>
http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org
> -------------- next part --------------
> An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
> URL:
>
http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org/attachments/20071009/612adde4/attachment.html
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> _______________________________________________
> The American Community Gardening Association
> listserve is only one of ACGA's services to
> community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA
> and to find out how to join, please go to
> http://www.communitygarden.org
> 
> To post an e-mail to the list: 
> community_garden at list.communitygarden.org
> To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your
> subscription: 
>
http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org
> 
> End of Community_garden Digest, Vol 270, Issue 1
> ************************************************
> 