Common Ground School Resource Center

Hi Gardeners...
Wanted to let you know about an organization/school in New Haven, Common Ground.
In partnership with the Newman's Own Foundation and the Green Village Initiative, Common Ground is in it's first pilot year to offer support and training for school garden coordinators and teachers through the new Common Ground School Resource Center .
It is geared toward  Bridgeport and New Haven inner city schools, but we could do a similar thing in Darien if you think there is an interest. Please let me know...thanks!

Webinar Jan 23rd/ USDA's plans to connect schools to local food producers

Jan. 23, 2013, 2-3 p.m. Farm to School Program (USDA)

Learn about USDA’s efforts to connect schools with local or regional producers in order to serve local or regionally produced foods in school cafeterias. In addition to procurement activities, food, agriculture, and nutrition-based educational efforts that span a host of hands-on experiential activities, the session will also discuss school gardens, field trips to local farms, and cooking classes, and standards-based curriculum centered on food, agriculture, and nutrition. The webinar will discuss how farm to school fits in with the new meal pattern for school lunches, as well as the farm to school grant program.

Click here to connect with the webinar.

Ridgefield/GVI Meeting Recap

Hi Everyone,
Avery Costigan is the garden leader in Ridgefield and held a meeting to review garden practices and plan for any changes this spring. She created an amazing recap that I would like to share with you...

Thank you all for your time on Thursday.  We appreciated the participation of Monique Bosch, GVI and Bridgeport school garden leader, she added so much value!  We hope the discussion was useful for your development plans.  Also, be sure to note the Chartwells GRANT information below and the attached. 

Here are the highlights.  We started off by voicing our garden challenges:

• Success of Garden Activity Guide is based on voluntary teacher participation.  Not every teacher meets the effort with the same interest, therefore a lack of parody exists amongst grades, within and between schools. 
• Time and volunteers to lead the activities are at a minimum.
• Every student seems to need a role and often the lesson plans do not provide that.  

NEW IDEAS & THOUGHTS - We must keep in mind the Common Core State Standards, as well as, CT State Core Science Standards be bridged with our garden activities.  This provides layered curriculum-based learning that can deeply enrich the overall learning experience and make the garden the teaching tool it is meant to be.

General:

• Bridgeport School District:
• Garden Coordinator - In Bridgeport, there is a Garden Coordinator at every school.  They receive a $500 stipend and are responsible for an After/Before School Enrichment for 1 hour per week plus maintenance and scheduling of garden related activities.  The Board of Education budget supports the stipend at 34 schools. 
• Food Corps - In Bridgeport, the school system utilizes Food Corps; https://foodcorps.org.  They are a nationwide team of leaders that connect kids to real food and helps them grow up healthy.  They place motivated leaders in limited-resource communities for a year of public service, working under the direction of local partner organizations, they:  1) teach kids about what healthy food is and where it comes from, 2) build and tend school gardens, and 3) bring high-quality local food into public school systems.  
• We are reluctant to say this would be available at most locations in Fairfield County based on demographics but they are an expanding organization.  There could be other organizations that offer a similar services via USDA; such as http://healthymeals.nal.usda.gov/chefs-move-schools-2
• Crop Plans - Have students complete.  This is a great way to bring in math, knowledge of particular crops and management. 
• Next step:  Monique to distribute lesson plan.
• Katonah-Lewisboro School District - From last June's Ridgefield GVI meeting with Denise Martabano, here is the focus of their K-5 garden:
• April-June:  salad for 500 students utilizing seedlings
• After that:
• K:  5 Senses Garden
• 1:  Caterpillar Topiary
• 3:  Butterfly Garden
• 4:  Colonial Herbs
• 5:  Weather Station

Kindergarten:

• Potatoes in a barrel should be renamed "Potatoes in the Ground" since we most had some trouble growing and maintaining in the barrel, and have had great success with the ground. 
• Others have simply picked up curriculum activities - seeds in the classroom or growing Lima Beans - instead of the Mother's Day Marigolds. 
• SES is the only school to have completed Harvest the ABCs.
• NEW IDEA:  St. Patrick's Day Peas.  VPES has implemented this lesson based on tracking growth in time for the end of school year harvest. 
• Next step:  VPES to provide lesson plan.

1st Grade:

• FES successfully completes Stone Soup in the Fall having the students plant their ingredients for it the Spring before.
• If anyone would like a Worm Composting lesson plan review or kit, please contact Delphine Robbe, delphinerobbe@mac.com, who has been working with worms for a long time!
• We piggy backed the Worm Composting discussion with a project from Bridgeport - Creating Compost Tea; build the compost tea bag, let it soak, further demonstrates that "this" becomes "that".  See below in 4th Grade. 
• Next step:  Monique to provide a lesson plan.

2nd Grade:

• SES adds onto the Composting in the Classroom with further developing recycling concepts with larger ideas and facts.
• VPES has their 2nd graders plant and harvest ingredients for a Pizza Garden. 

3rd Grade:

• RES using the Forcing Bulbs project as a pre-holiday project so that the forced bulbs can be part of the holiday celebration. 
• We discussed the potential for new projects.  Our efforts need to support the curriculum:
• NEW IDEA:  Viability of Seeds - a sink/float test
• CT State Science Standards:  Supports Properties of Matter - how does structure of matter affect the properties and uses of materials?  3.1 Materials have properties that can be identified and described through the use of simple tests

4th Grade:

• We all agreed that Water Conservation project was overkill since River Study is a huge focus in 4th grade.
• Update the Garden Scavenger Hunt worksheet
• Next step:  VPES to provide worksheet
• NEW IDEA:  Inoculation of Seeds - http://groworganic.com/media/pdfs/legume-l.pdf
• CT State Science Standards:  Matter and Energy in Ecosystems - how do matter and energy flow through ecosystems?  4.2 All organisms depend on living and non-living features of the environment
• NEW IDEA:  Creating Compost Tea
• CT State Science Standards:  Matter and Energy in Ecosystems - how do matter and energy flow through ecosystems?  4.2 All organisms depend on living and non-living features of the environment
• NEW IDEA::  Cooking with a Sun Oven - http://www.sunoven.com and is appropriate for use beyond Grade 4
• CT State Science Standards:  Energy Transfer and Transformation - what is the role of energy in our world? 4.4 Electrical and magnetic energy can be transferred and transformed

5th Grade:

• We all agreed Tracking the Sun is too timely to execute and should be removed.
• FES has completed a few other projects in addition to Salad Days. NEW IDEAS:
• Drying herbs and making sachets
• Greenhouse affect over Winter months
• Pizza Days
• Next step:  FES to provide lesson plans.

NEXT STEPS - 

Interns: - BES has been very successful with the Interns.  Tracy has the Interns be her assistants, in lieu of parent volunteers, and utilizes 1 or 2 days a week in their 5 week internship, starting the week of 5/13/13, to execute the Garden Activity Guide. 

WHO WOULD LIKE RHS INTERNS THIS SPRING?  Please provide how many you seek and requested day(s).  Respond to Amanda and Avery by Friday, January 25th. 

Seedlings: - Avery will work with Dina to create a seedling request form.

Grants: - We were hearing requests for fencing, sheds, greenhouses!  We love your plans! Grants will be forwarded onward as they come to us and feel free to share what comes across your computer too!  

In addition, please find the CHARTWELLS Grant worksheet.  Please fill out and return by Friday, February 1st to the name and address listed. 

The Winter Garden

Though gardening doesn't spring to mind during these cold dark days of winter, a table top garden is something that keeps me going until I can get back out there.
In order to keep up interest in gardening in the classroom, consider :

1/Forcing bulbs - many of our local nurseries have narcissus (paperwhites) and amaryllis bulbs at  half price.
link: how to force bulbs
2/Forcing blooms from budding branches ie forsythia
link: how to force blooms
3/Growing sprouts for a delicious, nutritious snack. See link for an inexpensive device and seed.
link: sprout germinator
link: Why sprouts are so nutritious
And it's always fun to start pouring over seed catalogues!