Sharing Our Guilford County School Gardens

Cone Elementary and Irving Park Elementary 

form a garden partnership!

At a School Garden Network meeting in March, a parent from Irving Park El. and a teacher from Cone El. discovered that they had similar ideas about gardening with their students. They took it a step further, deciding how much fun it would be for their students to share their experiences with each other. A gardening sister school partnership was born!

Heather Fullagar from IPE and Meghan Dyson from Cone call their program Seed Pals.

It is a seedling and student written letter swap between 1st graders at the two schools.

First grade classes, at both schools, are raising seedlings and swapping letters. Our first grade will provide bok choy, rainbow swiss chard and daikon. They will receive cucumbers, squash,

okra and watermelon. Both schools will plant seedlings. Students’ second letter will

provide an update with a thank you. This works well as a service learning project!

First grade teachers Meredith Baity, Barrie Hornbuckle , Jodi Perlmutter, and IPE volunteer Heather Fullagar pictured below. Letters from students with drawings on the back. Cone 1st grade teachers will use this writing activity as one of their benchmark assignments.

 The second graders have planted potatoes. They will provide how-to letters to Cone’s 2nd graders. They will plant the received seedlings. A thank you letter with an update will follow.

Heather says “It is our hope that the letters will help our teachers expand their garden teaching. To incorporate math, they should include what date the seedling was planted, how many days to maturity and spacing when replanted. To incorporate art, the children could include drawings of what the seedling will become.”