The Problem
Our school is located in a low socio-economic area where families struggle to have enough healthy food. Our project will help ensure that families have access to vegetables which can be placed on their tables.
Our Plan
My fourth grade students will spend time evaluating our community needs in regard to plants, animals and humans. We will learn that all three entities need each other for survival and longevity. The students will be guided into planning a school garden on an area of our playground that is no longer used. We will partner with a non-profit coffee shop in our community that has begun their own small garden to assist local community members. The expertise of these local community members will be transferred to our school garden. The garden will host raised beds for planting vegetables and pollinating flowers. We will start a Fourth Grade Garden Club that can commit to working in the garden during June, July and August to sustain its growth and development. At the beginning of the new school year, the students will visit the garden to harvest our vegetables. These vegetables will be donated to our local non-profit coffee shop that hosts a "giving farm cart" where community members can help themselves to fresh vegetables. The students in our classroom will be fully engaged in the planning, designing, creating and tending of the garden with the final goal of harvesting and donating back to the community. The pollinating flowers will attract the bees that will continue to keep our garden sustainable for years. In year two, we will enlarge our garden and plant flowering trees for more pollination.
Themes Addressed
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Activism
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Collaborate
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Community
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Pollinators
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The Benefit
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People
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Animals
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Environment
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Here is how the project went:
I feel it was successful overall, even though our school ended up beginning a construction project that detoured our original plan.
Through this project I/we learned:
We learned how to be flexible while still assisting our community. The students that began this project are now in 5th grade, so I will work with the 5th grade teacher to ensure last year's students can see the success!
What I/we might change:
Honestly, I would not change anything except the construction block, but that was unexpected.
My/our favorite part of this project was:
My favorite part was the harvest and the "give back" to the sharing cart!
Some tips, tricks or fun facts about the project:
My only suggestion is to be flexible!