My students include kindergarten through 6th graders. As the nurse, I see and educate all of the students in our elementary building. Most of my students are on the free lunch program and have not tried a variety of fresh produce. Most are on the poverty line, including several who have to take home food on the weekends through our food backpack program. We also have four classrooms of behavior development students and many special education inclusion students who benefit greatly in hands-on learning.
My students are excited to learn about health and wellness in our new STEAM Innovation room.
All of 300 plus students get scheduled time in this new hands-on learning lab where you can hear their enthusiastic and excited voices coming from this room in our school. They love trying new healthy recipes and unfamiliar foods when having guests come in for nutrition education in the past.
My students reside in a city setting, limiting their ability to grow their own food. They are always eager to eat fruit and vegetables at school but are often unable to have these choices at home due to cost and lack of garden space.
My Project
This indoor garden will provide all of our students the opportunity to participate and learn about how to grow fresh produce. They will use the produce they grow in healthy recipes at school, and inspire their families to reproduce them at home. Learning how to grow produce at school will provide our students with life long skills to grow their own produce.
The garden will provide an enriching experience to all of our students, as it will be kept in our Innovation room which all classes utilize for hands-on learning activities.
It is reusable from year to year so it will impact future students. It will also be used continuously during our school year, providing ongoing fresh produce all year. We will be able to have a good variety of produce with its continuous use.
This garden provides all the needed materials to get started with immediate gardening experiences for all of our students. They will be excited to observe the growing process and create anticipation of getting to sample the fruits of their labor! The growing supplies can easily be replaced for the future years through our innovation room supply budget.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Ms. Tyson and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.