Morehead Elementary Builds its Outdoor Learning Program!

March 28^th, a Thursday afternoon was a brisk blue sky day, perfect for Morehead Elementary’s special Outdoor Learning Site Dedication! It is named the S.O.I.L. (Star, their mascot, Outdoor, Instructional, Learning) Lab.

 

 The idea for the site developed out of brainstorming sessions with Laura Tew, Master Gardener and Morehead Elementary teachers and staff. Many staff members have been gardening with students at the school with Laura’s guidance over the past few years. They needed an outdoor space where students could carry out experiments and write about their observations.

Laura’s successful application to Lowe’s Toolbox for Education Grant provided the funding needed to build the learning centers’ tables and benches.

Deric Lam, the local Lowe’s manager who worked with Morehead to supply materials attended the dedication.

Faculty member Tom Bader of the Weaver Academy, whose students constructed the tables and benches, was also present for the dedication.

The entire student body attended the dedication, there was a lot of excitement in the air! Vicki Schrock, P.E teacher and service learning coordinator led the dedication. The support on the part of the whole school was evident. It is clear that this Outdoor Learning Space belongs to EVERYONE at the school!

Garden-Based Learning Workshop at GCM’s Edible Schoolyard Wows Teachers.

GC Coop Ext School Garden Network brought together a talented group of educators Thursday at the Edible Schoolyard, a perfect venue to learn about teaching in a garden setting.

In addition to providing concurrent sessions in Basic and Established gardening techniques, garden-based lesson plans aligned with the core curriculum was presented in break-out sessions for preK-2, 3-5, and 6-8 grade teachers.

Gardening educators from Running Pine Herb Farm, The Giving Seed, Chef’s Move to Schools, FoodCorps, Greensboro Day School, And Gso Montessori, NC State Extension, Edible Schoolyard Staff, and GC Coop Ext School Garden Network all shared school garden-based information with attending teachers and volunteers.

Some of the 40 attending might argue that the highlight of the evening was the delicious fruit and veggie based dinner donated by Whole Foods Market Friendly Ave. Whole Foods Market also sponsored a drawing for a rain barrel, seeds, and gift cards.

Whole Foods Market at Friendly will host a Grill-out fundraiser for the GC Coop Extension School Garden Network April 12^th noon-5pm. Cynthia Nielsen, the SGN Coordinator for Guilford County says “School gardens are huge in Guilford County. In 2010 we had 15 schools with gardens. Today we are up to 50. Our job is to help school staff use them as outdoor learning centers and make them sustainable”.

Jones Elementary has got it Growing on!

Jen Schell, head of the Jones Elementary's gardening commitee updates us about their Spring 2013 gardening activities and plans:

As of today, we finally have our beds prepped and will be planting next week.  We had over twenty volunteers show up to help this morning.

This year we are going to focus on service and all veggies grown will be given to families in need of fresh produce. We are coordinating this with our guidance counselor.

This year teachers who are participating in the garden have drafted parent volunteers from their classrooms to help plant and harvest their veggies.  We have a parent/grandparent volunteer lined up to help with every classroom this year.  

We will continue with our group of kids or the Garden Team which will meet weekly to learn about our garden and assist in the maintenance and other special projects our garden requires.  This project is also coordinated with our guidance counselor.  

We will also be starting sweet potato slips in 7 classrooms in March.

We will also have support this summer from the full time staff and students to have a summer garden too.  We will let you know as this develops further.

Food/Service at Oak Hill Elementary

This school year, the FoodCorps slogan is “Food/Service” and can be seen emblazoned on the back of the purple shirt I so frequently wear in the classroom. Oak Hill’s third grade classes have been the embodiment of this message through their year-long Service Learning project. Having used the inaugural year of the garden last year to teach science and nutrition lessons to 70 third graders, teachers felt that the garden would be the perfect way for kids to learn about the meaning of community service.

In the fall Oak Hill sent a vegetable survey to the High Point Food Pantry to assess the need for fresh vegetables. The majority of produce available at the food pantry was canned or preserved in some way, because until last year they did not have the capacity to collect and store fresh produce. Thanks to Guilford County’s Share the Harvest initiative, food pantries across the county can now collect and distribute fresh fruits and vegetables donated from grocery stores, backyard gardens, and now even schools.

The survey, which listed a dozen cool-season vegetables, was given to nearly 200 individuals and families who visit the High Point food pantry. We were able to sort our results, and found that the top 3 vegetables on the list were broccoli, cabbage, and mustard greens. Mmm mmm you gotta love those brassicas! Third grade students were able to plant the most popular choices in their outdoor garden to overwinter for a spring donation. Not only will students deliver fresh vegetables, ready to eat, but they will also be donating seed starts so that folks can learn how to plant their own vegetables. Thanks to grant money received last year from the Whole Kids Foundation, Oak Hill now has a Grow Lab, a cart on wheels with fluorescent lights nourishing the tiny seedlings. The students will care for the seedlings for about six weeks until they are taken, along with the harvest from the garden, to the High Point Food Pantry.

Seedlings under Grow Lab with recycled utensils to mark each one!

Veggie Tasting at Oak View Elementary and More!!!

As kindergarten classes at Oak View Elementary began filing into the cafeteria at 10:30am last Monday morning, they were greeted by a peculiar sight clear across the room: three big people and several little people in hair nets, aprons, and gloves, in a flurry of activity around a table filled with fresh carrots, avocados, lemons, and… some strange leafy-green vegetable. An illustrated poster of “KALE” hung behind the table, and right before those kindergarteners’ eyes, Dixie cups filled with that same bright green veggie began to appear on a rolling cart and make its way around their lunchroom. What was going on? Why, thank you for asking! A school-wide tasting of raw kale salad, that’s what! Oak View Elementary was the January site of FoodCorps’ most recent “Harvest of the Month” tasting event in Guilford County.

I should introduce myself: I’m Eliza Hudson, the other FoodCorps service member serving in 9 of the title-I High Point elementary schools this year alongside Leah Klaproth. This year, Leah and I have been coordinating monthly local food tasting events just like this one at Oak View, which we’ve deemed “Harvest of the Month” because they always highlight an in-season, locally grown fruit or vegetable. Beginning in October with apple cider and cinnamon applesauce donated by Greensboro’s Whole Foods at Parkview Elementary, the tastings we’ve done have evolved a bit each month. On January 28^th, in our most recent event at Oak View, we were fortunate enough to have nearly 35 pounds of fresh Vates Blue-Curled kale donated by Mike Faucette of Faucette Farms in Browns Summit, to make enough raw kale salad for the entire Oak View Elementary student body: just under 500 students.

In December, we also featured a Faucette Farm crop for our “Harvest of the Month” at Northwood Elementary: cabbage, in apple-cabbage coleslaw we made for Northwood Elementary, and as Leah mentioned in a previous post, November’s “Harvest of the Month” was raw sweet potato sticks with tzatziki sauce at Oak Hill Elementary, with the sweet potatoes we used donated by Troxler Farms.

Oak View’s event last week was particularly inspiring for me. I’m at the school three days a week, not only teaching in 3^rd grade, but also with their ACES program on Friday afternoons. The Oak View 3^rdgrade teachers I’ve been working with this year, Lori Lee, Shari Sawyer, Peggy Stuart, and Melissa Wirth, are using the Oak View school garden and my skill set as a FoodCorps service member to conduct their required grade-level service-learning project this year.

 The morning of the “Harvest of the Month” event, they sent me a schedule with names of students from each of their classes (a total of 12) who would be helping Leah and I. Doing everything from making the raw kale salad and passing out samples, to making sure their peers voted for how they liked it on the sticker board by the lunchroom exit, these twelve 3^rdgraders were engaged in the most inspiring, hands-on service-learning experience I’ve witnessed yet in this position. They were an integral part of delivering a delicious raw kale salad to over 450 students ages 4-12. How inspiring is that?

Fall Highlights from the Lindley Garden

As we begin to think about spring, it's also fun to remember what we did in the fall. Here are some of our highlights:

We planted a small crop of corn before school let out, and it was in perfect form when kids returned to school. So many children had never seen corn growing! When it dried, we made a little "corn maze" for the younger students, and then created a scarecrow with the stalks! "Bob" withstood many a storm this fall!

Since kindergartners work on counting, we had them in the garden counting okra seeds they harvested. Each child had an index card with a number from 10-25 for the number of seeds they had to count and attach to tape on their card.

What to do with dried okra?

We had lots of leftover okra in our garden in the fall, so 4th graders made snowmen at their winter party! It was easy to do. I spray painted the dried okra white, then drilled little holes for the "carrot" nose (broken tooth picks painted orange). We cut fingers off cheap gloves for the hats and leftover material for scarves.