As teachers start to head back to school, we get a lot of pictures of weedy gardens sent to us with questions such as ” Help! How do I clean out my gardens?” or “Where do I even begin?” We get that teachers are already so busy and adding, “clean out the garden” to an […]
Hard to believe it, but we are in August folks! For educators everywhere this signals starting anew and your schoolyard garden is no exception. As a member of the Schoolyard Gardens (SYG) Program there are a few things we need you to add to your to-do list – Complete your Annual SYG Enrollment Form – […]
For our last school spotlight of the season, I wanted to shine light on East High School (KCMO) for their award-winning agriculture program! In 2015, science teachers Andrew Killen and Zac McCullough revitalized the program with the help of the East High students. This meant long hours of organizing greenhouses, classroom spaces, rebuilding garden beds […]
The Olathe East High School Interpersonal Skills (IPS) class sees gardening as an integral part of their curriculum. The IPS program combines students with disabilities with peer mentors to learn social and other real-life skills. Hands-on gardening can provide lessons in science, math, cooking, communication and more. The school partnered with the Kansas City Community […]
This week I’m excited to spotlight the garden at Children’s Center for the Visually Impaired (CCVI). CCVI has been a member of the Schoolyard Gardens program for about 5 years and they generally grow in all three seasons. They are huge fans of sweet potatoes and in 2019 harvested an impressive 100 lbs.! Their garden […]
This week’s school spotlight is Washington High School in KCK. Partnering with Schoolyard Gardens since 2015, Washington High School’s Wildcat Outdoor Learning Lab and Community Garden turned an old tennis court into an outdoor classroom where students are encouraged to study or just take a break and enjoy nature. Science teacher Karen Rogers leads the […]
Our next school spotlight is North Kansas City High School in KCMO just north of the river. It’s been a pleasure working with Industrial Tech teacher Stephen Wagner since July 2021. Mr. Wagner started the high school’s garden club “Growing Northtown” which consists of about 30 students and 10 teachers. Students designed and built the […]
This spring we asked schools to try out the Taste Test Tool to find out which veggies students would like to eat again. We had 32 schools submit taste test results during the month-long competition. A total of 432 students ages 3-18 years old participated in the taste test. Twelve vegetables and 4 SYG recipes […]
This week’s Schoolyard Gardens school spotlight is Tomahawk Elementary, located in Overland Park, KS. Fifth grade teacher, April Cremer does a wonderful job incorporating the garden into math and science lessons as well as teaching important hands-on skills such as cooking. I asked April what her experience has been like teaching from the garden and […]
For the next two months, our SYG blog will spotlight a few of the wonderful schoolyard garden sites we have the pleasure of assisting. Each week, we’ll zoom in on a different school, sharing and celebrating their garden stories. We hope you’ll be as inspired as we are by these rock star gardeners! I’ll kick […]
