4-H Project Green Teacher
School Garden Newsletter for Educators--Late Fall 2019
4-H Project Green Teacher School Garden Series Set for January to March 2020 at OSU
You can register online at: go.osu.edu/pgtwinter2020
Franklin County Teens Invited to Attend 4-H Project Green Teacher for Free with a Paid Adult
Franklin County teens aged 13-17 are invited to attend the 4-H Project Green Teacher School Garden series for free with a paid adult registration this winter. Otherwise, they can attend for a nominal fee of $50. The goal of attendance is for the youth to become school garden teen leaders, and to mentor others in their school in regards to gardening. (See above brochure for information about 4-H Project Green Teacher).
A 4-H Club school garden teen leaders group will start up in April and those completing the Project Green Teacher series are invited to join. Interested teens should contact Sue Hogan at hogan.239@osu.edu for more information and the forms required for participation.
School Garden Curriculum Resources
Educators often do not know where to look for school garden lesson plans, especially when they are just starting out. There are a number of great resources online, and more are being added on a regular basis as school gardening expands across the country. Although the following websites offer collections of lesson plans, you can also search online for individual topics, especially if you teach middle or high school. Here are some excellent online resources:
Grow Pittsburgh offers over 70 practical lesson plans aligned to the seasons at: https://www.growpittsburgh.org/garden-and-farm-resources/school-gardens-2/school-garden-resources/
Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences offers the "Sowing Seeds of Success" resource: http://gardening.cals.cornell.edu/program-tools/
University of Georgia Extension has lesson plans from Kindergarten to grade 8:
https://extension.uga.edu/programs-services/school-garden-resources/curriculum.html
Kids Gardening offers lesson plans mostly for elementary at:
https://kidsgardening.org/educator-resources/
Life Lab offers items for purchase at: https://lifelab.z2systems.com/np/clients/lifelab/giftstore.jsp?actionType=search&categoryIds=9&catalogSearch=false&keyword=&
Life Lab is also a provider of online webinars and onsite workshops.
Agriculture in the Classroom offers a curriculum matrix on agricultural topics for grades K-12 at: https://www.agclassroom.org/teacher/matrix/
Featured Teacher: Christine Weatherholtz, Columbus City Schools
Name: Christine Weatherholtz
School: Columbus City Schools
Educational Position: Nutrition/Farm to School Curriculum Coordinator K-12
How long have you been engaged in school gardening? Four years
How did you get started? A graduate from Columbus City Schools wanted to make a donation back to the Linden Community where he grew up and raised his family. His business association donated soil, peat pots and seeds for our curriculum department to get out to the Kindergarten classes. I was the Elementary Science/Social Studies Curriculum Coordinator at the time and the task was given to me to connect to curriculum and implement the program. When I went into the classrooms to read Growing Vegetable Soup and teach about gardens and gardening, the little Kindergarten children were absolutely thrilled and completely engaged. We taught some vocabulary and where food comes from and how you can grow your own. Their response to this experiential learning opportunity was amazing. There are so many individual stories I could share about the little ones' enthusiasm and response to the learning that I could literally write a book. When I saw the children's response, I did some research about the urban garden movement and the potential learning for our children and the potential career opportunities in the field for our secondary students and I was sold! I then connected with community partners like Ohio State University Extension, Slow Foods Columbus, Franklin Park Conservatory and Franklin County Soil and Water Conservation District to create an initiative to place gardens in every school that wanted to give this experiential learning opportunity to their children. That first year we put in 22 school gardens and now the program has grown to 54 gardens out of 111 schools, and we are still growing.
What was the most memorable moment you had teaching your students in the garden? I travel from school to school teaching and presenting about having a school garden. There truly are so many stories. Recently I was in four classrooms at Valley Forge. We talked about food, growing our own, completed vocabulary activities, had a read aloud and planted vegetables in their cold weather gardens. The students and teachers were wonderful and one of the 4th grade students said, "This is the best day of my life!" This reaction is really very typical and I really love the learning I see going on at all of our buildings!
Why is school gardening an important educational tool for teachers? The connections to content are so varied and applicable. With the hands-on learning, movement and potential informational reading connections, the opportunity exists to make learning real and teaching a lot more fun.
What advice do you have for those wanting to start a school garden?
Dig in! I promise you will love what grows! You absolutely do not have to do it alone. There are so many community entities that want to partner with us to provide these opportunities to the children. There is curriculum that supports our Ohio standards and more coming, so it doesn't have to be "one more thing" on a teacher's plate. It can cover and support so much in a way that children remember, recall and can apply in a new setting.
How are you planning for long term sustainability of the garden once you retire or take on another position? We have developed a rock star teacher Professional Learning Community or PLC at CCS (love all those acronyms) for our teachers that are doing exactly what we mentioned above. They are connecting school gardens to learning and using the experience to inspire student driven learning. These will be the leaders of tomorrow and will keep the initiatives moving forward and growing.
Save the Date--October 23rd, 2020 for the School Garden Conference
Franklin County, Ohio, 4-H Project Green Teacher--School Garden Educational Series
4-H Project Green Teacher is an informational newsletter and series for educators and others that focuses on school/educational gardening. It is brought to you by 4-H personnel who work for Ohio State University Extension in Franklin County, Ohio, a part of the College of Food, Agriculture and Environmental Sciences (CFAES).
CFAES provides research and related educational programs to clientele on a nondiscriminatory basis. For more information, visit cfaesdiversity.osu.edu For an accessible format of publication, visit cfaes.osu.edu/accessibility.
Email: hogan.239@osu.edu
Website: franklin.osu.edu
Location: 2548 Carmack Road, Columbus, OH, USA
Phone: 614-866-6900
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/projectgreenteacher/