Harvest



A carrot is actually a root!
Harvesting in the fall
  • Classes and students are welcomed to observe the garden, and pick edibles
  • The Gardening Leaders pick the remaining food. The Leaders are anyone who wants to be a Gardening Leader - students who were involved in the spring, and new ones as well. 
  • We make a Garden Soup and a Garden Salad with the vegetables for the Gardening Leaders and others to enjoy
  • We have taste tests for classes (cherry tomatoes are great for that!)
  • Each year we save a few potatoes to plant the next year, so children can see the plant cycle
  • A couple of years we have kept a pumpkin and watched it through the winter. In the spring it softened, new sprouts emerged, and we planted them in the garden. This is great Science Process learning. 
  • We don't have enough food to donate to the Food Bank.
Classes come out to help harvest. 

Fall Composting
  • Outdoor composting leaders gather the dead plants to add to the composters
  • We collect dry leaves that will be needed for the compost, and store them
  • Classes collect their apple cores and banana peels. Student Outdoor Composting Leaders collect and process them once a week, at lunch recess.
  • Outdoor composting stops at the end of October or first snowfall, whichever comes first. 
  • Outdoor composting runs again from April-June.
Digging for potatoes. 
Fall prep
  • We leave some plants to see if they'll grow again in the spring (eg. mint).
  • We transplant herbs back into pots to try to grow them inside during the winter.
  • We plant bulbs in our flower planter for spring tulips.
Winter Composting
  • We have 20,000 red wriggler worms in an indoor Composting Centre (buckets and factories). 
  • Student Wormologist Leaders feed the worms apple cores and banana peels from students' lunches. 
Herbs are great to grow in a garden - hardy and tasty.

Curricular Alignment
  • The garden and composting fits every grade in some way, for example:
  • Science: small animals, plants, light & dark, energy, heat and cold, life cycles, conservation, climate, seasons, Boreal Forest, waste management, inquiry process
  • Language Arts: write observations, read text about gardens and composting
  • Health: nutrition 
  • Social: local and global citizenship, quality of life, resources in Alberta 
  • Math: measurement, estimation
  • Art: draw a plant - it's a beautiful thing! 
  • PE: gardening is good exercise. Try lifting a bag of dirt!
Gardening Leaders

Inquiry Process
The garden and composting provide meaningful learning opportunities. Students naturally ask a lot of questions when they're out in the garden with adults. The garden and composting invites them to
  • ask thoughtful, focused questions
  • connect with prior knowledge
  • gather new information through careful observation, discussion and research
  • conduct experiments, including designing a fair test
  • communicate observations
  • synthesize knowledge
  • communicate learning with other students, and adults
  • apply learning in a tangible way, by helping improve our garden and composting
  • acquire practical skills that can be used at home and throughout their lives
It's project based learning. It's experiential learning. It's just good learning. 
Harvest Day

As 21st Century Learners, our students are learning: 
  • Collaboration and leadership
  • Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
  • Creativity and Innovation
  • Social Responsibility and Global and Environmental Awareness
  • Communication
  • Life-long Learning and Self-Direction




As educators, it's a very exciting thing to be part of. 



Nature. Wow.