School Gardens
School Gardens, not a new concept!
There are lots of resources to support garden design, creation, and utilization for learning. Here are some to get you started.
Connecting with other School Garden Teachers:
Get connected! Subscribe to the School Gardens group and connect with the gardening and urban agriculture community of WA State. Learn about community garden events, volunteer opportunities, share information, ask questions of other gardeners and farmers.
sustainabledesignproject.ning.com/group/school-gardens
Designing, Installing and Maintaining Your School Garden
Comprehensive School Garden Resources
Plant Databases
Using Your Garden for Teaching and Learning
Curriculum Ideas
Keeping a Nature Journal
(Claire Walker Leslie resources featured at February 10, 2009 REAL People Networking Event)
National and State Organizations
Starflower Habitat Education Activities and Resources These materials include hands-on activities for teachers and students, native plant identification cards useful for all, weed identification cards especially handy for individuals engaged in restoring habitat, and informational posters to alert others to the joys of native plants, as well as a helpful guide for those interested in establishing a native plant garden.
Fundraising to Sustain Your Garden
Fundraising Programs Grants
There are lots of resources to support garden design, creation, and utilization for learning. Here are some to get you started.
Connecting with other School Garden Teachers:
Get connected! Subscribe to the School Gardens group and connect with the gardening and urban agriculture community of WA State. Learn about community garden events, volunteer opportunities, share information, ask questions of other gardeners and farmers.
sustainabledesignproject.ning.com/group/school-gardens
Designing, Installing and Maintaining Your School Garden
Comprehensive School Garden Resources
- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
- Grow To Learn (New York City's School Garden Initiative)
- Life Lab
- The National Garden Association’s Kids Gardening
- Planting Calendar for Organic Edible Gardening from Coppell Community Garden (Coppell, Texas)
- San Francisco Green Schoolyard Alliance
- School Garden Weekly
- School Garden Wizard
- Texas A&M’s ABCs of School Gardens
- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Schoolyard Habitat Guide
- Ecoliteracy.org- A Guide for Developing School gardens as Outdoor Classrooms
Plant Databases
- Botanical Research Institute of Texas
- Botanical Society of America
- Garden Forever
- Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation
- eNature.com
- Tool for Schools Plant List (North Texas) - Excel spreadsheet
- United States Department of Agriculture
Using Your Garden for Teaching and Learning
Curriculum Ideas
- Agriculture in the Classroom, USDA
- Butterflies and Moths of North America
- Celebrate Urban Birds, Cornell University
- The Classroom Victory Garden Project
- EcoKids
- The Edible School Yard
- Environmental Defense Fund's Teacher's Guide
- Garden Activities for Kids, U. of Nebraska-Lincoln
- Garden Based Learning, Cornell University
- Garden Mosaics
- Healthy Zone (from The Cooper Clinic and United Way Metropolitan Dallas)
- Journey North
- Junior Master Gardeners
- Leafy Greens
- Monarch Watch, U. of Kansas
- National Environmental Education Week, mid-April
- National Lab Day
- National Science Teachers Association
- National Wildlife Federation Schoolyard Habitats
- Natural Resource Conservation Service: Soil Education
- PollinatorLIVE
- Project FeederWatch
- Project Learning Tree
- Slow Food in Schools
- United Nations, Food and Agriculture Organization
- Urban Nutrition Initiative, U. of Pennsylvania
- Using Live Insects in Elementary Classrooms, U. of Arizona
Keeping a Nature Journal
(Claire Walker Leslie resources featured at February 10, 2009 REAL People Networking Event)
- Clare Walker Leslie Brochure
- Sample Journal Page Set-Up
- What's Happening in Nature in Winter
- Winter is a Wonderful Time to Study Nature
National and State Organizations
- Acorn Naturalists
- American Horticultural Society
- Boy Scouts of America
- Children, Nature and You
- Children & Nature Network
- Cornell Lab of Ornithology
- Earth Day Network
- Girl Scouts of America
- Green Ribbon Schools, Texas
- The Jane Goodall Institute
- Keep America Beautiful
- National Audubon Society
- National Parks and Conservation Association
- National Weather Service
- National Wildlife Federation
- North American Association for Environmental Educators
- Place-Based Education Evaluation Collaborative (PEEC)
- Promise of Place
- The Sierra Club
- Take a Child Outside
- Teton Science Schools
- Sharing Nature Worldwide
- The Trust for Public Land
- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
- Urban Ecology Institute
- Valley Quest
- World Meteorological Organization
Starflower Habitat Education Activities and Resources These materials include hands-on activities for teachers and students, native plant identification cards useful for all, weed identification cards especially handy for individuals engaged in restoring habitat, and informational posters to alert others to the joys of native plants, as well as a helpful guide for those interested in establishing a native plant garden.
Fundraising to Sustain Your Garden
Fundraising Programs Grants
- DonorsChoose.org
- My Grant Wrangler
- Lowes Toolbox for Education
- The National Garden Association’s Kids Gardening Grants
- Wild Ones
- WA State Department of Agriculture Farm to School Program
The WSDA Farm-to-School Program is dedicated to fostering relationships between schools and agricultural producers in Washington State. - WA State School and Community Gardens Google Map
OSPI created this Google map of school and community gardens in the state of Washington. There is also a link to a short survey to add additional school and community gardens to the map.