Learning real-life skills through           hands-on education

It is our goal to give these kids real life experiences that they don’t have time to learn in the classroom. In gardening, we have the chance to get our hands dirty, whether it’s in the dirt, or cutting strawberries. When they leave our class, we want them to have learned something that they will use in real life. We pull from curriculum such as 4-H, Life Lab, The Edible Schoolyard, and more. Here are the things that we get to learn this year:

With love and vegetables, Mrs. Miller

2018-2019

January

In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., students got to learn about the Civil Rights movement, including an  historic event that happened very close to home; the Greensboro sit ins. We were able to explore the events and the implications it still has for our students today. We were able to celebrate the diversity that we enjoy at SGE, and think about what we can do to preserve the freedoms that we enjoy.

Moving our focus back to food, we will learn all about the vocabulary used to describe food. It is important to have words to describe what we like (and don’t like) about food. This way, we can more easily identify foods that we want!

2017-2018

February 12 – February 23

This unit focused entirely on the basics of plants. What do they need to survive? We set up experiments to determine what happens to a plant that has access to everything it needs, and what happens when it doesn’t.

• Light: Plants will bend toward the light source, no matter where it is! This is called phototropism.
• Water: If a plant does not have water, it will sent out roots to search for water. If it finds some, it sends a signal to the rest of the roots to grow in that direction.
• Nutrients: Similar to water, if plants do not have nutrients, it will send roots to where the nutrients are. This is why many plants (especially trees) have most of their roots just under the surface of the soil.

January 29 – February 9

How does weather affect what and when we can plant? We learned about frost dates (when you can start to plant outside), planting things that are appropriate for the environment, and ways that people use to get around bad weather such as:

• Hoop houses (like the one on our campus)
• Green houses
• Starting seedlings inside
• Planting in pots and moving them inside when it gets cold

January 8 – January 19

Before fridges, freezers, and modern packaging, people used many different methods of preservation. We learned about some of these methods using a fun BINGO game, and then the kids got to try their hand at canning some delicious strawberry jam!

December 11 – January 5

Kale Fried Rice! Let’s show off our chopping chops.

• Knife skills
• Saute
• Plate and serve
• How we change a recipe to fit our personal tastes

Check out this post with some pictures!

November 27 – December 8

This unit is all about the 3 R’s; Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

• Why do we use the 3 R’s?
• What is Climate Change? 
• What exactly does ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ mean?
• The 3 R’s in action! Sorting game
• How can we use the 3 R’s at school and at home?

November 8-17

We have a new teacher! Mrs. Miller has just joined us and we can finally have gardening class again! Our first lesson with her includes:

• Class expectations
• Exploring the garden
• What is soil?
• What is soil ‘made’ of?
• Let’s get our hands dirty!

 

2016-2017

October/November 

Eat a Rainbow
A lesson focused on the benefits of eating a variety of fruits and vegetables. Eat a Rainbow is a standard nutrition lesson for many gardening and culinary programs, and is a great way for our students to learn the benefits of different colored fruits and vegetables.
Read the Label
This lesson will introduce students to the importance of reading the labels on our pre-packaged food products. With a range of samples, from canned beans to boxed cereals, students will understand how to read a nutrition label, and look for healthy pre-packaged food options.

August/September

• Crop rotation
• Seed saving
• Intro to Compost
• Roots and Erosion
• Selective Breeding
• Foods at their source
• Food Preservation
• Probiotics and Antimicrobials
• How to make relish
• Plant Parts
• Transplanting
• Furrow Seeding
• Organic Fertilizing