SCHOOL gardens
GROWING YOUNG MINDS
School gardens can make lasting differences in the lives of children, with the lessons taught through these outdoor learning laboratories transcending gardening to impact children, their families, and entire communities for years to come.
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chool garden programs use typical gardening tasks, such as planning, planting, caring, and harvesting, to illustrate cultivation. Plants, insects, birds, and weather all become participants in the learning process. As a result, children are more engaged, more attentive, and more motivated to learn. Perhaps more importantly, through school gardens, children experience the rewards of fresh produce and the process that goes into cultivating food to eat. They learn to understand the natural growth of plants — from seeds to sprouts to flowers to fruits — and the impact that rain, drought, and other forces of nature have on plant life. Children learn first-hand the connection between nature, their own food supply, and the pollinators and other creatures their school garden ecosystem attracts and supports. By their nature, school gardens also encourage teamwork, individual responsibility, and a commitment to success. Many gardens involve community volunteers, who assist students as they plant, tend, and learn. Increased interaction between children, teachers and volunteers encourages growth in interpersonal and cooperative skills that follow children throughout their lives.
Enabling Kids to Get Growing Oke is an organisation that provides Kiwi kids the opportunity to learn life and social skills by introducing productive gardens into schools. By giving the kids the tools to learn, Oke empowers schools and communities to grow these skills, ultimately providing a better place for everyone. Through Growing A Future, Oke delivers a garden to each school, enabling the kids, teachers, and local community to get growing. The garden is built through a community working bee (in just ONE day) and includes all that is required to make it sustainable; raised beds, greenhouse, composting solutions, kids’ tools, teacher tools, irrigation, fruit trees etc. Oke was founded by Paul Dickson who was introduced to the world of project management at the age of 16. “Over the next 20-plus
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