Upper Elementary

Highland Elementary School

Our goal is to establish a vibrant school garden on the grounds at Highland Elementary where students and teachers can enjoy the garden as an outdoor classroom space. Salem-Keizer Education Foundation or SKEF has established successful gardens at eight area schools already. The gardens are focused on high-needs neighborhoods where students can benefit the most from fresh produce and an education in healthy, sustainable skills.

Haynes Early Education Center

We would like to see the garden utilized by more classroom teachers to give students authentic experiences to solve and write about real problems or events. For example, one way we could utilize the garden in this way would be for the K2 students to map the garden. Mapping is currently what they are practicing as they learn more about their community. They could expand their knowledge of their community in many ways with the garden. Families and community members could be invited to share recipes, prepare food, and share customs, stories, etc.

Roger's Elementary School

Marshall County 4-H has partnered with Roger's Elementary School and Mid-Iowa Community Action to provide an weekly after-school program and summer intensive to over 180 youth. The garden space is currently located at the Marshall County Extension Office however, we have been granted permission to build raised beds on school grounds. The raised beds will allow staff to provide education to all youth at the school along with building a sense of community.

Calabasas Elementary

The discovery garden at Calabasas Elementary School in Watsonville integrates science based lessons in the after-school garden program to reinforce classroom curriculum. The garden space is an outlet for students to explore nature, grow organic food and cultivate a passion for learning. As 96% of the families are Latino at Calabasas Elementary there is a strong emphasis on cultural connection to the land in growing crops that are meaningful to their heritage.

Meadow Park Elementary

We aim to educate the youth and their families about sustainability by way of our community garden. By growing real foods and teaching students and their parents about the importance of healthy food choices and skills to sustain food, we feel we can make a lasting impression upon the lives of the youth for generations to come. We spread the love of real, healthy vegetables and fruit, as well as the recipes and preparation techniques all while exposing the community to sustainable awesomeness!

Cochise Elementary School

Our state had the seventh-highest rate of obesity in 2011 (for children ages 10-17). This is worrisome, especially considering the fact that our students only attend physical education about twice a month due to financial constraints. We strongly believe that a school garden is essential in promoting healthy living and nutrition for our students, their families and the community.

New Settlement PS 327

The WITS Tower Garden will be the primary feature of the WITS Green for Kids program, with the goal of increasing environmental awareness and develop sustainable practices in public schools. Because the Tower Gardens are mobile, students can connect to nature anywhere in their school, year-round. The Tower Gardens will be featured in the WITS Green Labs, hands-on educational classes on sustainability topics; used to support the WITS Culinary Labs; and also made available to teachers for use in their curricula.

Lincoln Elementary

The hydroponic garden would be implemented as part of project based learning plan that will begin in kindergarten and extend into the first grade year. Students gain knowledge and skills by working for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to the question: How can small things contribute to such a big world? and solving a problem: How can we grow fresh food in the winter months in North Dakota? The students would be involved in the implementation and care of the garden.

Berlin Elementary School

Our overarching goal is that all students will learn to appreciate and access the skills necessary to independently produce nutritious food for themselves and their families in the future while building understanding of where food comes from. Some of the many goals of our garden project are to provide students with hands-on experiences planting,harvesting, preparing,serving, and eating produce from our community garden.

The Pennfield School

The Pennfield school currently has eight 4' X 10' raised beds (made with cedar) that are in desperate need of replacement. We grow a wide variety of vegetables, herbs, edible flowers, and almost everything by seed as part of our science/sustainability program. We would put this grant money to great use by replacing the existing beds, adding new soil, composted manure, and compost to the beds and if possible, a drip irrigation system. This year we experimented with straw bale gardening in three of the beds which was a terrific success. We would love to try this again.

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