The funding will provide opportunities for hands on learning and instruction for science-based curriculum in all grade levels. The upcoming garden club will use the funding for local company called "Ready to Grow Gardens." This company is made up of educators that use TEK-based science learning within an outdoor garden to educate students and provide opportunities to actively investigate, discover, question, predict, and make valuable connections. Not only will the teachers come out and provide classes for all grade levels during a "Garden Day" they will also instruct Crosby Elementary Teachers on how to maintain and use the garden in everyday learning.
This project will directly meet the needs of our students as well as the upcoming science TEKS for the 2024-2025 school year. Science will be taught in a different way that will support student thinking and encourage cross-curriculum. The new TEKS will be hands on and more inclusive to all learning styles. Being able to have access to the garden this year as well as all the valuable information that “Ready to Grow Gardens” will provide us, will aid us to be successful in meeting the new TEKS. For example, when teaching fourth graders about the food chain we often only have access to a two-dimensional model. Moving towards a three-dimensional curriculum it will be hard to be successful at meeting the standards without proper resources. A garden will provide a three-dimensional model that will include parts of a food chain, producers, consumers, and decomposers. Students will have access to hands on learning and see a food chain right in front of them in real time. This is one of the many TEKS that will have the opportunity to be taught using the garden as a model. Vertical alignment will also be heavily enforced with the new TEKS. All grade levels will have access to garden days with “Ready to Grow Gardens” and the opportunity to join the garden club. Within the club, not only will we manage and take care of the garden, but we will also use that time to enforce TEKS and learning of all grade levels. The higher the grade level the more rigor there will be. Teachers will have the opportunity to reinforce the skills that are being taught in the classroom using the garden and giving them a hands-on experience.
According to Katie DeMuro from Greenleaf Communities, a community garden has so many benefits for both physical and mental health as well as benefits for the community as a whole. The end goal of this project is to have a garden that is big enough that families can come with their student and pick fresh fruits and vegetables. According to the accountability rating for the 2021-2022 school year, 54.3% of Crosby ISD students are economically disadvantaged and 52.2% of students being at-risk. A community garden “increases access to fresh foods, improve food security, increase physical activity through garden maintenance activities, improve dietary habits through education, increase fruit and vegetable intake, reduce risk of obesity, and improve mental health and promote relaxation”. Given that over half of Crosby ISD students are economically disadvantaged or at-risk, a community garden will greatly benefit in many aspects of student lives. Students will have access to something that they otherwise would not have.
Our target population will start with elementary aged students to provide a foundation of learning that will uphold their learning in future years. Creating a garden club gives a student a reason to come to school, it gives a student something to look forward to, responsibility and it even can provide a family with a healthy meal.
To start off the year, teachers and knowledge staff will provide any safety trainings prior the clean out day. We will be looking for approximately 15-20 students to join this year in hopes that we can open for slots as the garden gets bigger throughout the years. The discovery lab already has supplies that includes shovels, gloves, safety glasses and varies garden tools. The garden club will then clean out the garden beds and create a good foundation. The garden beds that Crosby Elementary are right outside the discovery lab and easily accessible to all students, including wheelchair accessible. During the initial clean out day students will be outside and getting active. Their task will include pulling weeds and filling the beds with dirt that we already have from previous years.
Following the initial clean out day and once the garden is ready to plant Ready to Grow Gardens will come out for their first Garden Day. They will educate our garden club members and teachers on how to run and maintain the garden. This will ensure success over the winter and have a blooming garden for spring of 2024. During fall we will also plant a milkweed garden for monarch butterflies in hopes that we will be able to gather the eggs and watch the lifecycle in the classrooms while also attracting pollinators to increase the success of the spring garden.
In the spring we will schedule for Ready to Grow Gardens to come for six consecutive days. The lessons will be held during specials time with the discovery lab. Since there is a specials rotation, the six consecutive days will ensure that every class in Crosby Elementary will be able to experience a garden day which results in reaching over 725 students. Ready to Grow Gardens will come out and teach about how to plant a seed and the germination process. They can also teach about the lifecycle of the plant and relate back to any TEKS that are being caught in the classroom at that time. The educators are all past or retired teachers that are knowledgeable on how to relate to TEKS using the garden as a three-dimensional model.
This project will directly meet the needs of our students as well as the upcoming science TEKS for the 2024-2025 school year. Science will be taught in a different way that will support student thinking and encourage cross-curriculum. The new TEKS will be hands on and more inclusive to all learning styles. Being able to have access to the garden this year as well as all the valuable information that “Ready to Grow Gardens” will provide us, will aid us to be successful in meeting the new TEKS. For example, when teaching fourth graders about the food chain we often only have access to a two-dimensional model. Moving towards a three-dimensional curriculum it will be hard to be successful at meeting the standards without proper resources. A garden will provide a three-dimensional model that will include parts of a food chain, producers, consumers, and decomposers. Students will have access to hands on learning and see a food chain right in front of them in real time. This is one of the many TEKS that will have the opportunity to be taught using the garden as a model. Vertical alignment will also be heavily enforced with the new TEKS. All grade levels will have access to garden days with “Ready to Grow Gardens” and the opportunity to join the garden club. Within the club, not only will we manage and take care of the garden, but we will also use that time to enforce TEKS and learning of all grade levels. The higher the grade level the more rigor there will be. Teachers will have the opportunity to reinforce the skills that are being taught in the classroom using the garden and giving them a hands-on experience.
According to Katie DeMuro from Greenleaf Communities, a community garden has so many benefits for both physical and mental health as well as benefits for the community as a whole. The end goal of this project is to have a garden that is big enough that families can come with their student and pick fresh fruits and vegetables. According to the accountability rating for the 2021-2022 school year, 54.3% of Crosby ISD students are economically disadvantaged and 52.2% of students being at-risk. A community garden “increases access to fresh foods, improve food security, increase physical activity through garden maintenance activities, improve dietary habits through education, increase fruit and vegetable intake, reduce risk of obesity, and improve mental health and promote relaxation”. Given that over half of Crosby ISD students are economically disadvantaged or at-risk, a community garden will greatly benefit in many aspects of student lives. Students will have access to something that they otherwise would not have.
Our target population will start with elementary aged students to provide a foundation of learning that will uphold their learning in future years. Creating a garden club gives a student a reason to come to school, it gives a student something to look forward to, responsibility and it even can provide a family with a healthy meal.
To start off the year, teachers and knowledge staff will provide any safety trainings prior the clean out day. We will be looking for approximately 15-20 students to join this year in hopes that we can open for slots as the garden gets bigger throughout the years. The discovery lab already has supplies that includes shovels, gloves, safety glasses and varies garden tools. The garden club will then clean out the garden beds and create a good foundation. The garden beds that Crosby Elementary are right outside the discovery lab and easily accessible to all students, including wheelchair accessible. During the initial clean out day students will be outside and getting active. Their task will include pulling weeds and filling the beds with dirt that we already have from previous years.
Following the initial clean out day and once the garden is ready to plant Ready to Grow Gardens will come out for their first Garden Day. They will educate our garden club members and teachers on how to run and maintain the garden. This will ensure success over the winter and have a blooming garden for spring of 2024. During fall we will also plant a milkweed garden for monarch butterflies in hopes that we will be able to gather the eggs and watch the lifecycle in the classrooms while also attracting pollinators to increase the success of the spring garden.
In the spring we will schedule for Ready to Grow Gardens to come for six consecutive days. The lessons will be held during specials time with the discovery lab. Since there is a specials rotation, the six consecutive days will ensure that every class in Crosby Elementary will be able to experience a garden day which results in reaching over 725 students. Ready to Grow Gardens will come out and teach about how to plant a seed and the germination process. They can also teach about the lifecycle of the plant and relate back to any TEKS that are being caught in the classroom at that time. The educators are all past or retired teachers that are knowledgeable on how to relate to TEKS using the garden as a three-dimensional model.
Ready to Grow by Brianna Denmon, Christina Johns, Ginny Blaha, Amanda Diaz, and Amy Glover - CES
Item #1028
$5,000
Value:
priceless