Submitted By: Kim Curiel (kimcuriel@yahoo.com) - Garden Instructional Specialist
Challenge
How to begin teaching our kids about basic sustainability concepts in elementary school, to begin preparing their generation for maintaining a sustainable relationship with the environment.
Solution Details
My lessons include water conservation and watershed protection, composting, mulching, heirloom seed saving, as well as several social studies related topics.
This program helps children understand sustainability on a very basic level. Last year the second graders planted tomato seeds in the green house then planted them in the garden in spring. In the late summer when they returned they made salsa fresca with their heirloom tomatoes. They saved the seeds and dried them to replant next winter. They pulled the fading tomato plants out in late fall and put the last of the green tomatoes in the greenhouse to ripen. They've watched the whole life cycle of the tomato and enjoyed, literally, the fruits of their labor. They weeded, mulched and watered along the way. They composted the remains of the vines and learned the recipe for a good compost pile.
Third and Fourth graders last year learned that pioneers carried seeds with them in their wagons to bring the plants they'd grown back east. They changed the state of California for good and bad. Fourth graders learned exactly how native people used the plants around them for their needs. Fifth graders created journals of their garden observations. Kindergarteners planted potatoes which we harvested this fall and cooked in the solar oven. First graders heard garden stories like "Tops & Bottoms" and "The Giant Carrot" and planted and harvested the foods they had heard about in the stories.
In addition to the seven trips each class makes to the garden for my lessons, they come out three times with the science teachers and every Wednesday they can choose to eat their lunch in the garden. Dozens of children come to eat and then beg to work in the garden, asking, "Please can I pull weeds?" or "Can I please get the mulch?" It helps having 10 kid sized wheelbarrows along with shovels, rakes and forks that the kids can use.
Benefits & Payback
The biggest success of the garden has been the joy the kids have for the garden and the food they've grown. One boy came out every single day to check on his watermelon that he'd grown from seed. When he ate that watermelon it was a wonderous experience. He simply glowed.
Informational Links
Burton Valley's Garden Classroom - Web Site
