Education Guide
Schools offer outdoor classroom experiences through gardening
Now that spring has officially sprung, planting and growing season is on the horizon. But gardening isn’t limited to the backyard. Many schools are incorporating gardening into their curriculums to provide children with a direct relationship with nature through experiences in planting, harvesting, weeding, watering and more.
At Westtown, a Quaker, coeducational, college preparatory day and boarding school in Chester County for students in prekindergarten through 12th grade, you can find a 1-acre student-run farm.
“Students can choose to be part of daily activities on the farm in fall and spring,” Westtown says on its website, www.westtown. edu. “This afternoon cocurricular is where students learn and work most intensively — following their food from seed to seedling, to planting, cultivation and harvest.”
Westtown also offers students experiential education in local and artisanal food arts.
“We have a new woodfired pizza oven, as well as a 96-foot high tunnel for extending seasons and winter growing,” the website says. “We also have a wonderful glass greenhouse right in the heart of campus that is used to produce food in the winter, house a collection of tropical edible plants and start seedlings for the other projects around campus.”
Planting and harvesting
Aside from planting and harvesting organically grown crops, students get to enjoy the fruits of their labor when it comes to mealtime.
“Vegetables grown on the farm are eaten by students in the school’s dining room all year long, connecting us all to local, seasonal food,” Westtown says.
During the summer months, the farm offers a small CSA, an on-site farm stand and farmers market stand.
“We also work closely with the Chester County Food Bank,” the school says.
Also active with the Chester County Food Bank is East Bradford Elementary School in West Chester. The school has four raised beds for growing produce specifically for the food bank.
“The Garden Committee at East Bradford Elementary is made up of students, teachers and families who maintain the beds, plant and pick the produce that is then delivered to the Food Bank, and weed on an ongoing basis throughout the year,” East Bradford states on the school’s website, www. wcasd.net/Domain/112
The school is looking for others in the community to offer ongoing help that is needed to keep up the garden, such as weeding, planting, harvesting crops and watering.
Teachers at East Bradford are also encouraged to take their classes to the garden to participate in activities.
Woven into the curriculum
Classes at Kimberton Waldorf School will be active with the soil this spring season through a gardening program that has roots as deep as the school’s 80-year history. The program is woven into the curriculum across the grades at the private collegepreparatory day school located in Kimberton, Chester County, for children in early childhood through high school.
“From connecting seasons and subjects to providing food for our organic lunch program, gardening provides opportunities to educate the whole child,” the school states on its website, www. kimberton.org.
Kimberton’s 2-acre organic garden is located on the school’s campus, offering direct experience and courses through the environment that teach children how to be good stewards.
“The gardening program educates students through practical experience that as human beings, we draw our daily sustenance from the Earth, and therefore have some responsibilities toward the earth both for our sake and for the wellbeing of others,” the website says.
Farm week
Students in third grade at Kimberton study farming, which includes a farm week where they stay overnight on campus in preparation for an early wakeup to help the farmers across the street at Seven Stars Farm, a biodynamic dairy farm, milk the cows.
“In third grade, our students also begin having gardening classes, which will continue into high school,” Kimberton says. “They learn how to plant and harvest vegetables, to prune fruit trees, and to preserve foods.”
The school shared why its gardening curriculum is important for students. One facet is the belief that an enriching experience in nature for students has many benefits for a child’s health and development.
“By caring for the garden, experiencing the growth of plants, and harvesting what they give us, the students develop a deeper consciousness and appreciation for the earth,” Kimberton says. “It is an opportunity to temporarily escape the fast-paced world of human society and to slow down and relax, taking the time to notice the details of nature and to use all five senses to experience the world more deeply.”