SS gardens at schools

[Lovechooks]

Sorry this isn't really a homeschooling question but I wasn't sure where else to put it!

Do many of the schools over where you live have vegie gardens and a few chooks for the children to learn about where our food comes from?

Many of the schools here do have this wonderful thing but not the one my 2 older boys go too which is really frustrating as I think it's so important they learn how to grow things, while I know I can teach them what about the parents that arn't into SS? What do you think?

 

[keljonma]

Most of the pre-schools/elementary schools in our area have the kids plant something in a paper cup for mother's day or Easter. IME it is usually a sunflower or marigold. I am in a rural area and agriculture is our number 2 economy. So many of the kids live on farms or have families that farm.

When I worked at the school & day care (toddler to 4th grade), there was some word of the county or state not allowing the kids to hatch chicken eggs in the classrooms anymore. There was quite an uproar, because the classes for 4 year olds and up hatched fertile farm eggs every year. But I left the school at the end of the school year, and am not sure how that ended.

ETA: There is a place called Spiderweb in our local community. They offer free tutoring to all students in the county. The students that are signed up for summer tutoring have been planting their three Square Foot gardens. The director found a local greenhouse to donate seedlings for the kids. And the gardens are looking good. I saw the kids Friday afternoon were planting marigolds in old wheelbarrow tires around the gardens.

 

[big brown horse]

I don't know how this thread eluded me!

In almost every Montessori school, pubic or private the children are responsible for some sort of garden.

Many public schools are catching on too.

(I worked at a Montessori school where they had a honey bees!!! They sold the honey at all the local festivals and events.)

 

[noobiechickenlady]

Not so much anymore. When I was in school, I actually got to raise 2 alpine goats. Bottle feeding, first aid. We also had trips to farms & the like and had a small garden plot off the football field. My kids are limited to the paper cup. Although, DS entered a contest to grow the biggest cabbage. They provided the seeds and a pack of fertilizer, along with some instructions.

 

[keljonma]

I don't know how this thread eluded me!

In almost every Montessori school, pubic or private the children are responsible for some sort of garden.

Many public schools are catching on too.

(I worked at a Montessori school where they had a honey bees!!! They sold the honey at all the local festivals and events.)

Our 2 oldest grands attended Montessori school for 2 years while my dd was finishing up a degree. I think the owner/principal must have some say in what the curriculum is at the local level, because this school had no gardening at all! So the grands gardened at grandma's instead.

However, every Friday, the students got to make lunch for the school (20 kids and staff). The students decided what the menu would be and the food was donated or purchased with money from the general fund.


typo

 

[punkin]

Our county high school has greenhouses where the kids start seeds and sell the plants in spring.

 

[Henrietta23]

I don't know how this thread eluded me!

In almost every Montessori school, pubic or private the children are responsible for some sort of garden.

Many public schools are catching on too.

(I worked at a Montessori school where they had a honey bees!!! They sold the honey at all the local festivals and events.)

I wish the one my son went to did. The school was only pre-k through k though. The other one that goes up to 6th grade has a garden, but no chickens.

 

[big brown horse]

That is too bad about those Montessori schools opting out of a garden. Everyone I worked for had one and if they didn't I made one. "Plant care" is part of the curriculum...gardening was an extension.

Hey our public high school has greenhouses and the sale of the school year's plants was a great fundraiser.

 

[Henrietta23]

There were issues with the director and teachers who are not far from retirement etc. It was too bad too, because the director raises chickens, lambs, bees, all kinds of stuff. She definitely had the know-how.
The elementary school I worked in two years ago had a fourth grade teacher who gardened at the school with the students. There's a really nice greenhouse too. I hatched eggs the year I was there and gave eggs to the preschool teacher the year after I left. That was the extent of the chickens there.

 

[big brown horse]

(I just moved here to WA state.) Back in TX, I had a room mother help me incubate eggs every year. The children learned how to candle the eggs and follow their progress with the help of a chart. They loved it. I think it is such a disservice to delete gardening (GASP!!) and hatching eggs etc. from the classroom! Really, it is pretty easy if you get a parent to help take a few at a time out for 20 min to tend their section of the garden. The kidos do all the work...and they loved it so much! There is no greater joy than to see those little faces light up at the sight of LIFE growing!!!

I remember when a parent donated a big pile of topsoil and another big pile of mulch...the kids watched through the window and couldn't wait to get their hands into that stuff. Little by little they helped move that topsoil into the allotted garden space. They each got a turn in small groups and it took probably about 2 weeks to finish. It was all they talked about that whole semester!