2024 Growing School Gardens Summit

Edible Schoolyard Project garden educators Sophia Fox and Tamika Whitenack attended the Growing School Gardens Summit in March. Hosted by the Sprouts Community Foundation in partnership with the School Garden Support Organization and Life Lab, this convening was an opportunity to connect with hundreds of garden educators from across the United States to share best teaching, learning, and growing practices. Over the course of a long weekend, participants attended field trips to garden sites, hands-on workshops, thought-provoking presentations, and various networking sessions.

Sophia and Tamika were delighted to lead a workshop titled “The Power of Play: Using Games to Achieve Learning in the Garden.” Garden educators played a diverse selection of games to explore play-based strategies for fostering learning, creating group culture, and managing student energy levels. Highlighting games used in the Edible Schoolyard Project garden classroom in Berkeley, participants learned about chickens and compost through an adapted version of Evolution, tested teamwork and observation skills to build a plant mandala, and dove into seed saving fun facts through a game called the Wind Blows. Sophia and Tamika planned a high level of interactive movement in the workshop, fostering an ethos of fun and creativity. Participants were provided with a worksheet to reflect on how to apply these games in their classroom setting, and a resource kit to help educators further their garden game adaptation skills.