Campus gardens help kids learn as they grow
Learning is not confined to classrooms at Greenwood Forest Elementary in Klein Independent School District or at Reynolds Elementary in neighboring Spring ISD.
School gardens have become fertile ground for lessons in health, science, art and English — a place where students can be up close and hands-on with flora and fauna.
Both gardens were started with hopes of sparking an interest in nutrition on campus and now these outdoor classrooms are becoming popular gathering spots for a number of reasons.
At Greenwood Forest, the campus nurse Linda Rosemeyer got the ball rolling on building a garden about two years ago.
“We wanted to create a culture of wellness at Greenwood,” she said. “We had a high obesity rate, and this was a project to help us control that.”
Rosemeyer believed that a garden could be the ideal place to inspire healthy eating.
“What I found while doing research is that kids will tend to try vegetables if they grown them themselves,” she said. “They might not try everything, but you certainly have a better chance.”
Texas A&M University brought its “Eat! Grow! Go!” program to campus — teaching staff about gardening and how to incorporate growing vegetables into lessons about nutrition.
Rosemeyer applied for a couple of grants — and won one from United-Health and another from the National Association of School Nurses.
“We were able to build this
gorgeous garden, where each grade level can go work,” she said.
The school built six raised plots and Home Depot donated buckets prepared to grow all vegetables needed for a salad. A butterfly garden is nestled in the middle and there are also flowerbeds and a plot dedicated to wildflowers.
“A lot of kids live in an apartment, and they don’t have a plot of land to garden on,” Rosemeyer said. “We want the kids to realize that you don’t have to live on a farm to grow stuff. You don’t have to have a big yard. You can improvise.”
Now a garden club is in charge of taking care of the outdoor classroom. Thirdgrade teacher Martha Curiel serves as head of the group.
“The kids tend to and maintain the garden,” Curiel said. “Kids really take in an interest in gardening and you wouldn’t necessarily think they’d be interested in it.”
This year, 60 students joined the club. The number is down from last year, when 80 kids enrolled, because teachers limited membership to third and fourth-graders to make the group more manageable.
The garden club recently planted milkweed for butterflies. Teachers are using Monarch butterflies to demonstrate the life cycle, raising caterpillars in cages and then releasing butterflies into the garden.
“A lot of teachers go into the garden to teach science,” Curiel said. “I go out there and teach writing lessons in the garden. We write poems and use adjectives about nature. It’s a multi-use garden and that’s what’s really cool about it.”
The developmental class spends time in the outdoor space as well. “It’s like therapy for them,” Curiel said. “They spend time watering the garden and helping weed.”
She believes that spending time in nature is an asset for students. “Some of the best learning happens when it’s live and it’s real,” she said. “You can see something in a picture, but it doesn’t compare to a live model. You can use the garden to teach so much and anyway you use it, it will benefit the kids.”
The community has always become involved in the garden. Eagle Scouts have added birdhouses and built a compost bin in the area. Parents are able to enjoy the harvest as vegetables are divided among kids to take home.
At Reynolds Elementary, a parent was on a mission to teach children about nutrition.
Maryah Nijim-Roberts moved to the district from London a couple of years ago. “I’m really passionate about nutrition, preventing childhood obesity and making sure children have a connection with food,” she said.
Nijim-Roberts started researching the Edible Schoolyard Project, designed by famous chef Alice Waters, and Michelle Obama’s efforts to get kids interested in gardening.
She found pages and pages of information about how children could benefit from a school garden and instructions on how to use the space as an outdoor classroom for all subjects.
“The work had already been done,” Nijim-Roberts said. “I just needed to hustle.”
In 2013, she worked with first-grade teacher Traci Mann to approach the district and principal Rodney Louis also got on board.
Mann said that Nijim-Roberts had become a friend and both were convinced that a garden could help students make good decisions about nutrition.
“I teach first-graders and they’re just starting to make those healthy decisions,” she said. “We knew this was doable. It’s happening all around the country. There was no reason why it couldn’t happen here.”
Nijim-Roberts said it was important to keep the cost minimal. “All we needed is a water tap and a fence,” she said.
The district agreed to do that part of the project, and everything else was donated from Home Depot, Living Earth and Plants for All Seasons.
Another parent Violet Mak, a Master Gardener, helped with the effort.
“We found a spot that was pretty sunny,” Nijim-Roberts said. “It was a lot of sweat. All the kids were helping over the summer. We got the beds set up with rebar and cement. Then we got mulch from Living Earth and plants from Plants for All Seasons. Soon we had lots of tomatoes and green beans.”
A gardening club now is charged with the garden’s upkeep. “Kids can come afterschool and do more than the students during the day,” Nijim-Roberts said.
Crops rotate by the season and children do all of the planting, picking and eating.
Nijim-Roberts brings crockpots to the school to cook vegetable pastas for the children to try and she also makes green smoothies and juices.
“Everyone gets to see the food grow in the garden; all 800 kids have done something with the garden,” she said. “It’s making a connection — a connection that wasn’t there before. Just the satisfaction and joy they have, the pride of ownership, is something that’s unique to this type of outdoor classroom.”
Eagle Scouts built a granite pathway to make the garden accessible to wheelchairs and built a sensory bed to appeal to children with special needs.
“We wanted the garden to be accessible to everyone,” Mann said. “Now there’s a pathway and that’s very helpful. The sensory garden is placed so someone in a wheelchair can touch it since it’s at their level.”
The Scouts also built a rain collection system and compost bin.
Mann said all types of classes have been conducted in the garden. “It goes right along with our curriculum,” she said. “We’re able to use it as a reading spot. We’ve put in picnic tables a whole class can use it. We want it to be relevant for everyone.”
Mann added that children have already been influenced by the garden to eat healthier. “They’re definitely branching out, and they’re expanding their palates,” she said.
Nijim-Roberts hopes other campuses will be inspired to follow suit. “I think all schools should have a garden,” she said. “It’s an affordable learning tool.”