Something to crow about

13-year-old student Jordan Lederman from Pine Lake Middle School in Sammamish entered a video contest sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) on the importance of getting a good education. Of the 600 entries received, staffers at DOE picked 10 finalists, including Jordan. Her video, that explains how different subjects have helped her learn about chickens, is a how-to for the cross curriculum connotations of Farm-to-School programs. She is also quite sweet and a little silly in a very charming way. Click on Lederman’s video (lower right hand corner) and watch her chicken story. If you get there by December 4th you can vote for the contest winner.

Gardens are great

We always say that school gardens can be used to teach anything across the curriculum, and here is a very poignant case in point. At North Adams School in Massachusetts students have donated 232 pounds of produce to the Berkshire Food Project. This is the product of their school gardens and of their study of local social issues relating to hunger and access to healthy food. They also learn and write about growing their crops. Read about it in this article from The Berkshire Eagle.

It's magic!

There's a School Garden Wizard! This supports your vision of a school garden with the necessary tools to make it a success. There are steps for building a team, designing, getting funds and supplies, learning the basics, planting, activities, resources, teaching and sustaining your garden. Plus lots of photos and wonderful ideas.

26 and counting...

That's how many Washington State school garden are registered so far. Garden in Every School is a registry of school gardens at kidsgardening.org. It might be fun to register your school garden here, but it is also a fabulous source of who's doing what and how. It is searchable by state or states, grade ranges, country, and gardening emphasis. Maybe your school can become garden buddies with one across the country or in a different nation. Maybe you can invite others to a turnip growing contest. Maybe you'll trade art projects. The possibilities alone are inspiring.

The history of a school garden

At Lewis Elementary School in Portland, OR the school garden includes greenhouses, composting bins, raised beds, barrels for rainwater harvesting and an outdoor classroom. This garden is used for all sorts of education and it is a peaceful relaxing spot as well. This garden was started small and has progressed following the ideas and needs of the school itself. There are teachers, parents, students and community volunteers hard at work, building a successful garden that can meet the very specific needs of the school. Read about the Lewis garden at Edutopia.

Beginning farmers

At the blog Beginning Farmers, there is a wealth of information available to all kinds of farmers as well as educators and supporters of farms. They offer a wide variety of information with special emphasis on sustainable farming, organic farming, direct marketing and local food systems. This is a good resource for farmers and for others who want to know about them. It has a wealth of articles that would be great for student research.

An alternate type of garden

Container gardening allows you to grow plants in difficult situations, using different gardening types, many of them very suitable to schools. The blog Container Gardening is completely dedicated to making your growing experience a successful one.

One of the ideas that they explore in great detail is how to grow a vegetable garden in plastic bottles. They have some clever ideas and good advice. There are exhaustive details about containers, soil, drainage, seeds, etc.

This might make a good school project that could then be taken home.