Gardening At Brooks Has Begun

Welcome friends to the Brooks Garden Journal Blog.  The school garden is an outdoor classroom oasis.  It provides students a rich opportunity to learn about complex and fascinating ecosystems as well as learn about growing and eating nutritious food.  The school garden lessons will be connected to the science curriculum on plant studies, for each grade level, K-5.    

Students who volunteer to be in the Garden Club, will meet once a week during their lunch recess time, through the end of the year.  They will learn how to use and care for garden tools.  They will be assigned to one of seven raised garden beds and will plant vegetable crops as a member of a gardening team.  They will learn about composting with earthworms as well as how to compost using a large compost bin.  Students will write about and draw their observations as well as graph plant growth over time, in their Garden Journals.

A big thank you goes to all who donated baked goods as well as those who bought and enjoyed them at the Garden Club Bake Sale.  I also want to thank the Student Council Representatives for selling the baked goods.  We raised $190.37 and purchased gardening tools so a class of 30 can work simultaneously.  The tools include watering cans, large and small gloves, buckets, cultivators, and trowels.

My hope for the gardening experience is to help children connect to the natural world by growing and caring for food they can eat.  I also hope gardening will provide experiences in cooperation, hard work, discipline, and self-awareness.   The project may even inspire environmental consciousness to a new generation of children. 

If you would like to get your hands dirty with us, please join us in the garden any day, Monday through Friday, 12:00-1:30.   The children and I would love to have your help.