Mount Rose PK-8 Academy of Languages

It is the mission of the Mount Rose School Garden to provide an outdoor garden space for teachers to incorporate into their science, writing and math curriculum as well as provide our diverse student population with an experience that they may not otherwise have access to. Creating a sustainable school garden will engage and educate students, teachers, parents and the community in the importance of fresh local food and ultimately teach them to take pride in themselves, their school and what they are eating. As the garden grows, we intend to utilize the produce to raise funds for the school, supplement our classrooms with healthy snacks and provide fresh food for our schools families that are in need. The hope of the garden is to broaden the minds of our students, provide a unique resource to teachers and nourish the community as a whole. Mount Rose K-8 Academy of Languages is a unique urban school with a diverse population; 45% of our students are Hispanic one half of whom speak English as a second language. We have many students who live in apartments or in hotels and have never had the opportunity to work in a garden, to dig in the dirt, to plant a seed and watch it grow and produce a fruit or vegetable. Our students and families would benefit tremendously from having an outdoor garden classroom. The goals of Mount Roses garden are as follows: Education: Having a school garden will provide the students with a hands on, outdoor, unique learning experience in their current subjects while learning about nutrition and food in tandem. The garden program will be integrated into our classroom curriculum through science lessons, writing lessons, and math lessons. Teachers will be able to cover multiple topics within these subjects that include observation time in the garden and hands-on time creating and maintaining the garden. In addition to regular integration in science, writing an math our students who need more challenging class work we will be offering enrichment time during regular school hours in which they will be able to study more in depth about the effects gardening can have on our community within the parameters set by our enrichment teacher. These students will be able to focus on a variety of subjects including garden design and layout, proper plant care, Nevadas climate, recipes for using the fruits and vegetables we are growing and how to protect the plants from diseases and predators in an eco-friendly way. We will also incorporate Mount Rose