LEARNER’S ALMANAC Winter 2012 A handy reference for how your gift has grown this season
We are welcoming another growing season and thanks to your generous support, thousands of students are able to sow seeds in REAL school gardens across North Texas. Our school partners are planting new learning gardens, engaging their communities, and cultivating successful students. Read on to see how!
THE BOUNTY OF THE SE ASON Over 2,000 students took part in learning garden design contests at our partner schools this year, and 306 parents, teachers, and neighbors took inspiration from the winning student designs at the Design & Dine events 319 volunteers installed Nathan Adams Elementary School’s learning garden on December 10th—our highest turnout to date 120 teachers participated in training events this winter to learn how to use learning gardens to meet state standards and engage students
GARDEN SPOTLIGHT: JO HN J. PERSHING E.S. Dallas’ John J. Pershing Elementary is now home to a vibrant new learning garden. In November, United Way volunteers, school staff, students, parents, and neighbors came together to build the outdoor classroom, which includes organic vegetable and perennial beds, a rainwater harvesting system, a chicken coop, and a pond. In June, the faculty will spend a full day in the garden with our educators exploring how each grade level can utilize the outdoor classroom to reach learning goals. This event will kick off two years of teacher training on campus, with the goal of ensuring that Pershing’s educators have the skills and resources to engage children in the outdoors for years to come.
STUDENT SPOTLIGHT: STUDENTS LEARN FROM GARDEN TO TABLE AT GRACE EVENT At the Second Annual Schoolyard Harvest Dinner on November 11th, students from four of our partner schools had the opportunity to taste food from their school gardens prepared by Executive Chef Blaine Staniford of GRACE restaurant. Chef Staniford used turnips, beans, and lettuce grown in the schools’ gardens to create a delicious meal for the ticketed wine dinner benefitting REAL School Gardens. In preparation for the event, students hosted Chef Staniford in their gardens and had the chance to take part in a healthy cooking demonstration and taste test. At GRACE, the students had a real gardento-table experience, enjoying their harvest in a number of healthy dishes and even touring the kitchen to learn first-hand how their meal traveled from their outdoor classrooms to their plates. We are excited to foster connections between garden-based learning and healthy lifestyles, and we look forward to another great event at GRACE next fall. The night was replete with chef toques (hats) and great food!
EDUCATOR SPOTLIGHT: TEACHERS LEARN ALL A BOUT ENERGY FLOW IN THE GARDEN In early February, fourth grade teachers from throughout Fort Worth ISD learned to map the energy flow—or food web—of a schoolyard as a way of planning to engage their students in science. Teachers got hands-on with outdoor-based science instruction by collecting and documenting schoolyard data. They then used Google Earth to construct food webs based on their findings and analyzed how energy flows from productive plants to organisms that decompose organic matter and back again. This training event was offered as part of our contract with Fort Worth ISD, which for two Looking forward to growing years has enabled us to provide these cool weather crops experiential, outdoor-based science training to teachers from all of the district’s elementary schools. After each training we provide, the district Fort Worth ISD teachers learned to link makes RSG lessons available to every Beets Spinach science concepts to the garden for their teacher in the district by posting them Carrots Lettuce fourth-grade students by using Google to the online curriculum planning tool. Radishes Peas Earth to map and study food webs.
Onion
“When I went out on campuses, the teachers couldn’t wait to tell me when they were going outside to begin the module” - FWISD Science Content Specialist
Potatoes*
*Stay tuned for the special role potatoes play in our Spring Learner’s Almanac
COMMUNITY PARTNER SPOTLIGHT: UNITED WAY SUPPORTS FIVE NEW GA RDENS United Way of Metropolitan Dallas (UWMD) has provided funding and hard-working volunteers for five new learning gardens in Dallas. We are proud to partner with UWMD to share in our mission of boosting the math and science education throughout the region with the ultimate goal of preparing 50% more students for post-secondary learning by 2020. RSG was one of 14 organizations welcomed as new UWMD service providers this year and was the top recipient of funds in United Way’s math and science focus area. With their support, we established learning gardens this fall at John J. Pershing Elementary School, Nathan Adams Elementary School, and Gabe P. Allen Charter School. We look forward to bringing learning gardens to life at Charles Rice Learning Center and Sidney Lanier Expressive Arts Vanguard in March.
From installing winding pathways through the gardens to digging ponds, United Way of Metropolitan Dallas volunteers have played a big role in building REAL school gardens. REAL School Gardens ● 503 Bryan Ave. Fort Worth, TX 76104 ● 817-348-8102 ● www.realschoolgardens.org ● www.facebook.com/REALSchoolGardens