My students need gardening tools to make our new school/community vision garden come to life because without these necessary tools we cannot begin, and 1,400 students are involved!
This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because
it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.
My Students
"Reduce, reuse, recycle, and plant a garden." This has become our mantra at our school. We have achieved this goal and improved our recycling which helped us achieve an A for our efforts on our school report card. We are only missing one major component to this mantra, the garden.
I teach K-8 art at a school to 1,400 students.
The students involved with this project would be my entire school and their community! My students live in a high poverty neighborhood with most receiving free lunch and breakfast. The demographics of my school are primarily Latino, many of which are English Language Learners. Our school is located in Chicago, IL and is part of Chicago Public Schools. They come from all types of homes, some living in foster care or with relatives. Every year our school donates winter coats for those in need. They are very sweet, creative, and desire success. This garden will teach them through hands on activities, something a book can never do.
My Project
The arts and gardening awaken students to the beauty of the environment and provide them an opportunity to respond to the world around them. To develop art and gardening skills, knowledge and appreciation, students will research specifics on how to install a vegetable garden, learn the plant requirements such as nutrients/sunlight/soil and making choices in seed selection based on their findings. The students will express their creativity and art skill in hand painting birdhouses, benches, and signs to enhance the garden. These projects will follow the style of the Folk Artist Howard Finster and his “Paradise Gardens.” Through these experiences students will learn about the care of a vegetable garden and how birds are an integral part in the ecosystem. Furthermore, students will learn mural painting techniques for three-dimensional objects and how to build a birdhouse. In continuation, students will be asked to author a small research paper about birds and the ecosystem.
The whole experience will broaden the students’ knowledge on subjects of ecology, art, agriculture, and develop their poise and interpersonal skills when presenting their work to others at the gallery show.
Students will research and be able to identify the importance of birds in the ecosystem. Students will learn how to build and assemble a birdhouse. Students will learn various painting techniques. They will learn how to make a garden and care for it.
More than three‑quarters of students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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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 Mrs. Honeycutt and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
