Palisades Elementary Charter School Discovery Garden

 Our school has a parent driven completely volunteer run program in the Discovery Garden. 

We integrate curriculum based learning in K-4 classrooms once a month.

Once a month the classrooms visit the Discovery Garden.  Kinder, focuses on learning the lifecycle of a plant, through planting seeds and watching them grow.; Taking care of the harvest and harvesting the produce to make recipes. It is a seed to table program integrated with drawing and coloring observation, and best of all tasting everything we grow. Kindergarteners get a real sense of fresh foods, where they come from and how to consume them in different ways. They make pumpkin pie, spinach pasta, pizza and carrot soup. 

First grade has an herb garden.  They learn the medicinal, culinary and general uses for herbs. Herbs are concumed fresh, cooked and in recipes. The kids learn to dry herbs and make teas and potpourris. The kids come back as second graders to harvest the basil crop and make the very special Pali Pesto. Each child goes home with a jar and shares it with their family. It brings our school community together. The first graders also have a garden sale and sell the jared Pesto to learn their money math.

Second graders focus on flowers, birds, bees and butterflies in their garden. They learn about the life cycle of a catterpiller and meal worm. They learn about beneficial and destructive bugs in the garden.  They also take care of and learn about the parts of worms. We teach second graders about plant reproduction and propogation.

Third graders began their year in the garden harvesting the tomatoes, peppers, onions, cilantro and garlic for a salsa recipe. They plant a Native American garden.  They pop popcorn and learn about Native American foods. They also plant a nutrition garden in the spring, and learn  them about complete proteins, legumes and grains. 

Fourth graders make compost for the garden.  There  is a compost bin for each fourth grade class to care for and create a hot burn.  They learn about decomposers and what breaks down matter. The fourth graders also harvest wheat as part of their Social Studies curiculum and make breead from the wheat flour. It is delicious!

Fifth graders particpate in a lunchtime garden club, which helps care for and tend to the gardens needs. They also have special projects , paint pots and prepare seedlings for garden sales.  Fourth and fifth graders assist the first graders with their garden sales.

The students, parents and staff absolutely love the Discovery Garden and all of the goodies that come out of it. We grow some pretty large pumpkins and always hope there is enough for each classroom to pick one from the garden.  

During recess and lunch we like to have the garden open and supervised for kids to come. It is another place on campus kids can find sanctuary, especially if they find the playground to be overwhelming and are looking for a quiet place with a project in mind.  

This year our goal is to grow enough to have some to bring to the Sunday village Farmers Market and participate in a community harvest dinner.  The Discovery Garden is a great way to make a school a community.