A carrot is actually a root! |
- 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. |
- 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. |
- 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.
Curricular Alignment
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
As 21st Century Learners, our students are learning:
- 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