My students need supplies that allow us to learn about gardening inside with a Root-Vue system, seeds, peat pots and dirt, and outside with hoes, trowels and shovels.
Today's students do not have gardens at home to know about growing their food. Our new school garden club will teach all grades about seeds, growing, flowers and vegetables, composting, healthy food choices and more! It will provide an outside classroom for all students & beautify a wasted space.
Our school serves about 850 K-5 students in our neighborhood in the San Francisco Bay area.
We have more than 20 languages on our campus, three classrooms serving special needs/differently-able children, an active and supportive Parent-Faculty Club, and nearly 50 dedicated teachers and support staff to work for the students' success. We have deep roots in the community, including four teachers who attended the same school as students themselves. We continuously attend professional training to learn current best practices and new technology and curriculum information, like those for Common Core State Standards. Our students work hard to master academic, life skills and character education curriculum and we celebrate their successes with monthly flag salutes, pizza with the principal lunches and Wednesday morning announcements.
My Project
Two teachers are launching an afterschool Garden Club. We aspire to teach students about growing food, flowers, native plants, composting, good and bad insects, insect life cycles, healthy food choices, nutrition and more! We will grow flowers and vegetables in themed planters (salad garden, pizza garden, native plants, etc.) but know that the kids will become impatient with the length of a plant's growing cycle.
We need supplies that allow us to learn about gardening inside with a Root-Vue system, seeds, peat pots and dirt, and outside with hoes, trowels and shovels. With these tools, we can start seeds in peat pots inside in a plant viewer in our classrooms so they can see the roots and sprouts grow and observe, record and hypothesize about the growing process. With the garden tools, the children can actually transplant the seedlings themselves into our garden beds. These materials will provide real, hands-on access for the children to use for study. All these materials will begin to outfit the teachers with a rich and rewarding place for the children to learn this year and in the future.
School funding in California has been dismal since 2007.
There is no money for any extras, not even for a club that will benefit all students on campus with many rich learning opportunities. Because this club should be open to any interested student, we cannot charge a membership fee. All materials, curriculum, tools and time are being donated by the two teachers leading the club. Please help us provide the richest learning opportunity we can for our students! Thank you!
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