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 […]
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 […]
So you’ve cast a vision for your garden this spring, planned out your garden beds and ordered your seeds and plants. Next up: planting!!! Planting the garden is one of my favorite parts of gardening, second only to eating things from the garden. For new and seasoned gardeners alike, planting can be an intimidating time […]
As growing season comes to an end, the garden to do list become shorter and we take inventory of 2019! In 2019, Schoolyard Gardens welcomed 17 new schools to the program. Making a grand total of 220 schools enrolled and actively gardening! This means 17,225 students learned about plant life, nutrition and trying fresh fruits […]
These past couple weeks have been a crazy whirlwind of traveling to schools all over the city to deliver plants and seeds and assist teachers and students with planting their schoolyard gardens. Tiring? Yes! But, so much fun and incredibly inspiring! I love the obvious aspects of a planting season – being in the […]
Hopefully, nobody lost sleep over the threat of frost this weekend! Saturday’s snow was a harmless, wet snow that didn’t accumulate too much. If you haven’t planted your garden, be sure to get planting this week to ensure a harvest or two before school’s out for the summer. Read these tips to help you […]
Happy New Year friends! New to SYG or just need a refresher? Here is what to expect during a year of schoolyard gardening. In January, most garden beds are resting, waiting for warmer weather to soften up the soil for spring planting. This month, schoolyard gardeners can be planning and dreaming about the upcoming […]
Hello Schoolyard Gardeners! We have been pretty quiet over here lately. Here’s what we have been up to: Taylor joined our team as an AmeriCorps service member (read more about her here) and we are so excited! We also had a big party to celebrate 10 years of Schoolyard Gardens in Kansas City. It was […]
Each summer churches, community centers and schools throughout the metro host Upper Room summer programs. The Upper Room envisions healthy and vibrant urban core neighborhoods. Their mission is to “Transform and revitalize urban core neighborhoods by offering and supporting quality programs, including education, comprehensive health care, jobs, and community and economic development.” The Upper Room […]
Tuesday I had the pleasure of planting with Mrs. Fullington and Mrs. Knecht’s Preschool class at Rosehill ELC in Lenexa KS. New to the Schoolyard Garden program, they were so excited to finally get to plant in their newly constructed raised beds. Before planting, we practiced planting our seeds by using wooden beads. We discussed […]
