GROWING GARDENERS

You’ve heard of “farm to fork,” right? Think of this season’s garden as a “seed-to-snack” project. Students at George Watts Montessori started planting seeds last week, and they’ll keep going until school gets out. By April, students should be able to start picking from the school’s edible garden to make their own classroom snacks. Imagine [...]

Starting a school garden is not unlike buying a soup spoon. You can’t fully enjoy a new soup spoon until you also buy the soup bowl and the soup to fill it. And students can’t fully enjoy a school garden until they harvest its vegetables and fruits — then take the next step of cooking and [...]

I just created a presentation about the evolution of our school garden at George Watts Montessori. (I can’t wait to tell you why I was doing that, but that will have to wait for another post.) To show what we’ve accomplished, I delved into the 5 biggest ways the garden has contributed to the students’ health and academics.

This week and last, I sent home large bags of fresh-grown lettuce and spinach from the Edible Garden to school families.* We’ve done this sort of giveaway before, and I’ll tell you why: 1. We can find good homes for vegetables that might otherwise languish uneaten in the garden. 2. Families who receive something fresh [...]

I have a confession. Before I tell you my secret, though, recall with me for a moment all the work we’ve done around salads at the George Watts edible garden over the past couple of years. First, we planted a Salad Garden. We held “Salad Days” in the garden, where kids plucked fresh lettuce leaves, made [...]

This week I have a guest post by Lower Elementary teacher Lauren Vejvoda, who talks about one of the true gifts of an Edible Garden — food that kids can pick and eat: Some of my students have been checking the lettuce in the Edible Garden daily to measure its progress. They’ve been really excited [...]

My recent garden session with fourth and fifth graders at George Watts Montessori started with a question: “When you buy garlic at the grocery store, where do you think that garlic comes from?” The students had never really thought about it, so they cautiously offered answers. One student said, “It depends on what store you [...]

Only 11 more days until the cooking-eating-gardening-crafts-and-music extravaganza known as … Expect hands-on cooking lessons for kids, mind-bendingly good (and healthful) tastings, pumpkins for painting, games, crafts and live music! Kids can crank an old-fashioned apple press by hand and see the apples turn into juice before their eyes! Teachers will take to the stage [...]