Garden Classrooms

Ellsworth Elementary

The Ellsworth garden is a powerful weapon in the school's fight against childhood obesity. More than 42% of Ellsworth's 437 students are overweight and 25% are considered obese.

In order to reverse these numbers, the Regional YMCA offers the SCRAM (Students Can Run And Move) health/fitness program to Ellsworth Extended Learning Program (ELP) and summer school students. Through fun exercises and hands-on nutrition lessons, the Y teaches children about healthy living.

Nathan Hale School

The garden will be used as a way to engage children in the food system process, to encourage physical activity and to implement health and wellness initiatives. Children will help in the development of the garden and what is planted there, helping them to develop organizational and team building skills. The growth of edible plants will help them to understand the process by which we receive our food. In addition to working in the garden, children will have the opportunity to taste some of the produce during lunch periods and after school cooking classes.

Merrill Elementary School

The goal of our school garden is to educate our students and their families about healthy nutrition through gardening or in our case, urban farming. Merrill Elementary School is located in Beloit, Wisconsin and, like many communities in the state, struggle with the effects of poverty on school age children. Over 97% of students attending Merrill are eligible for free or reduced lunches, speaking clearly to the need for promoting good nutrition.

Lambert Public School

The goal of our program is to seek student involvement while building toward a much larger goal being a student operated farm where not only produce but livestock would be raised. The immediate goal of this initial project is to use the context of a garden to instill a sense of ownership, responsibility, work ethic and community into all students involved. The planting and harvesting of crops and produce is an added benefit to this program.

Crockett High School

We visualize a garden in a location near the cafeteria where it would be easy to bring the food in and use it to feed the children of Crockett. We visualize a project that takes advantage of every single student's ability. We visualize a team of people working together to create a space that people meet and want to be in together. We visualize people all around our school wanting to become involved in our garden. We visualize working together to create something lasting and beautiful that will enhance learning for all of our students for many years.

Monterey Bay Charter School

Currently our garden is used primarily for the 3rd grade curriculum in our school. The garden is small and we would like to expand the number of beds in the garden, build a small greenhouse and have enough shovels, rakes, and hoes of varying sizes so that the garden is usable by all of our grades. We would like to produce enough food to eventually use for school lunches. Currently we harvest vegetables to make a weekly "stone soup" for the 3rd grade to eat for lunch.

Roseville Community School

Our RCS Garden Program was developed to enhance the student's understanding of gardening and life science. We strive to provide a natural gathering place for children and the school community for lunch or exploration that helps children make connections to nature throughout the day.

Dr. A. R. Lord Elementary

The goal of our garden is to share the pleasures of being outdoors and growing food with our students. Children love being outdoors, with their hands in the soil, looking at different kinds of bugs, watching the seeds they planted growing, and discovering that, in fact, they can eat this growing thing. When students are interested and motivated in the subject at hand, learning comes easy. We believe that the experience and skills that students gain from working in a garden stays with them, and causes them to respect their food and the Earth throughout their lives.

Cottonwood Plains Elementary School

We will have six raised gardening beds (one for each grade level) which would allow us to have gardens specific to each curriculum.

Ivy Academy

The goal for our Garden Program, should we receive funds from this grant, is to expand our current garden through the use of a greenhouse and the necessary materials for maintaining it properly. A sufficient greenhouse-growing program would allow for Ivy Academy to extend its cold weather-growing season, as well as get a head start on the spring. We would also be able to experiment with out of season crops in the winter. The overall goal is to add a structure to our garden so that we can continue to maximize our program

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