Kids reap what they sow in gardens growing at Stanislaus County schools

[Kadie]

Kids reap what they sow in gardens growing at Stanislaus County schools
By Kerry McCray
[e-mail]


Lanae Grier, 10, is a whirlwind in the school garden.

She hands out shovels, plants zinnias, picks vegetables and pulls weeds. And she does it all after school, when other kids her age are apt to be at home in front of the computer or TV.

Lanae, a fifth-grader at Modesto's Eisenhut Elementary, doesn't mind pitching in to tend to the leafy cluster of raised beds made of recycled plastic that sit on the blacktop next to the school's parking lot. It's where she tried a radish for the first time.

snip...
At Eisenhut, children fill out employment applications to be part of the garden crew. They grow everything from bok choy to heirloom tomatoes. At Empire Elementary, students are planting salad greens in wheelbarrows.

At Walter White elementary in Ceres, kids planted mushrooms, which worked into a lesson on macro- and microorganisms.

"There's not a single subject I can't teach in that space," fourth-grade teacher Jill-Marie Purdy said of the school's garden.

Math? Kids calculate the square footage of their garden. Language arts? Students write stories and poems about their garden. History? Children study California in the context of our state's rich agricultural heritage.

Read more: http://www.modbee.com/2010/04/18/1132016/kids-reap-what-they-sow-in-gardens.html#ixzz0lUWTIOyg

[Odin2005]

1. Cool!

[KittyWampus]

2. love this story, love this story, love this story.

It makes me so happy to read this.

Maybe I should log off DU before something else upsets me :)

[BrklynLiberal]

3. That is EXACTLY what Alice Waters was talking about when she was on Bill Maher.

http://eater.com/archives/2010/04/12/alice-waters-on-real-time-with-bill-maher-video.php

[hayu_lol]

4. Most of the elementary schools in the Los Angeles City School

System, during WWII, had victory gardens at select elementary schools that produced much of the vegetables eaten in the school cafeterias. One school would have the garden and other schools nearby would bus their students to work in the gardens.

Most of us enjoyed the field trip and working in our alloted spaces.

[BrklynLiberal]

5. An idea that should come back...

[AwakeAtLast]

6. My daughter is in her school's Garden Club

The leader is a retired teacher and she is amazing! She finds something for even the youngest student to do. AALette has a lot of fun in that club!