Our Community Garden project started taking formation when the STEM staff was asked to do a day of community service ourselves. We signed up for Crossroads Church's Community Garden since we have plants in our science curriculum in 2nd Grade. Once we heard how this helps people who need food and gives them fresh food instead of just processed food and how it brings people outdoors, together and for a great cause...the wheels started turning. We had a planning day at RAFT for our first PBL (Problem Based Learning). We started thinking about what we can do that would solve a problem, provide a community service while covering our Life Science standards and our Community standards within Social Studies.
Our minds kept whirling about how to do this and having some background knowledge that Dr. Karen Johnson had received a grant 6-7 years ago and she has been looking forward to putting up 2 greenhouses that she received from LOWE's and she also received funds from NEA in a grant format also. In the meantime, while she was waiting for approval she put her grant toward our Kindergartners planters, beds in front of the school and also she continually helped pay for our composting. We approached her and asked if she would be interested in helping us and she said, "YES"!
While teaching our Social Studies on a Tuesday while one of our parent volunteers came in by the name of Mr. Lampo...he was hearing the lesson and the discussion we were having as a class trying to decide what we can do in our community to make it a better place. So, being a realtor he figured out where the easement was between the City and STEM Lab. He came in and presented to the children how land lines work and how all the pieces together form a community. The students decided that our letter writing from our Language Arts curriculum that we were just beginning should be accomplished through asking the City or Mayor Downing for a piece of land for our community garden on the south side of the tennis courts.
Our STEM coordinator, Tracey Calderon also was on board, connecting us with the City and seeing if what the children wanted was even plausible. The next thing we knew we were meeting with many people from the City saying, "YES" and they even gave us a bigger piece of land on the west side of the tennis courts.
Once we got the land and the city even agreed to take care of the water, help us remove sod, bring trailers, etc. We at STEM were overjoyed. In the meantime, the principals from Hulstrom K-8 and STEM Lab asked all staff to meet with in grade level teams to plan our next unit of study. Once we met the lovely ladies, Lesa Harris, Cathy Twele, and Kim Spence we proposed the Community Garden to them and asked if they would like to work as a community of schools to accomplish this enormous task. They answered with a resounding, "YES"!
We then met as a team and the 5 of us teachers began to meet during and after school planning and mapping out the rest of the year. We began attending Coop Meetings in Adams County and even some of our team began taking gardening classes so that we could understand what was needed and how this all works. We met horticulturist, Alan Richardson! We asked him to help us, he was overjoyed and was willing to be a guest speaker in our classes even. He said, "YES"!!!
At the time we knew we would have to figure out how 2 schools would deal with money. So, we met with Julie Yamasaki our office manager how we could or should do all of this. Julie offered her services on her own accord and guess what we said? YES!!!
The students at both schools began learning about perimeter, area, depth of each garden bed! We didn't even think when we started how trans-disciplinary this project truly was: the students were writing letters, mapping and building a community from our social studies curriculum, covering spatial, geometric, and measurement standards while planning their gardens in blueprint formats using grid paper, color renderings with large 1" square 24" x 36" paper, to Google Sketch Up formatting a 3-D design of their proposal for our garden. The students even presented through a web 2.0 format using Haiku Deck to the City of Northglenn their solution to the problems regarding community vandalism, unhealthy habits, and reaching out to our community since both schools are schools of choice.
Our team of teachers then planned a day that all 126 students would gather together to meet each other and see what each top class color rendered plan for our garden they liked most. The students voted and we listened and the action began!
So many things were happening and we knew that we would need a place to store supplies for our students and our summer workers who have volunteered to work in the garden. So we asked STEM Lab's head custodian if he could help us with any ideas and he said...you got it...."YES"! He offered the shed in the Kindergarten playground for us to use as a utility shed! We love the word...YES!!!
As the project began to take form the lack of resources began to over. At this point, Tracey Calderon, went to Home Depot to take a brick laying class in order to form our beds. Once she arrived and conversations took place it became evident the Home Depot was wanting to help. So, we met with Home Depot and they generously donated timber, laborers, tiles, seed, rebar, equipment, generators...the is endless and continues on. They connected us with Bonnie Growers also, who then generously donated over 200 plants! At this point the joy that overcame all of us was immense. So many people wanting to help us do something that will help others. It is an incredible honor to have so many give to this project.
Between all of us we were able to get compost donated from A1 Organics in Eaton, soils from Pioneer, and yet we were still wondering how we would cover all the expenses. We then started tapping into other things we were doing and realized we could combine this project with a Roots & Shoots project through the Jane Goodall Institute. We decided to join forces with making this world a better place through an act of kindness. So, tada... a little more money to help us out.
The team of 2nd grade teachers then planned a parent meeting realizing we needed more help. The parents brought up many things we had not thought of and again reconfigured. We built a website and started getting more detailed in what we actually wanted and needed. We then planned a "bed-raising" day with our parents/families and together we raised 6 garden beds, a classroom, pathways, etc. The turn out was amazing...we figured that we had close to 150 volunteers that day and just can not believe our good fortune! Everyone said, "Work?..."YES"!
We knew with all the help that we have received that we needed to honor these companies and people. We knew that this would not have happened without the help of so many people working toward the same goal...the goal of providing this Earth, this community a place to go outside, getting connected as a community with our neighbors and schools and providing people with food that are in need. Around this same we had seen in the new wing at the DMNS this beautiful wall that was full of donors names engraved in leaves in their new wing. We thought that this was a perfect way to honor our donors and yet raise some more funds to families/businesses who donate $50 or more!
This is when NGHS got involved also! We learned at the "Farm to Table" event that NGHS have students who can engrave and cut out acrylic leaves and stems to put along our fence. So, now as you can guess, we have yet another partner in this project.
We have our planting day planned for Tuesday, May 6th and we are so excited to hear that a few news stations may come! We have some benches being delivered that day, some more breese, and who knows what else may happen at this point. The Journey is amazing and we can't wait to update you after Tuesday! Oh, and please don't forget that our Grand Opening will be on Friday, May 23rd!!!
Serving You,
The 2nd Grade Team's from Hulstrom K-8 and STEM Lab
Our minds kept whirling about how to do this and having some background knowledge that Dr. Karen Johnson had received a grant 6-7 years ago and she has been looking forward to putting up 2 greenhouses that she received from LOWE's and she also received funds from NEA in a grant format also. In the meantime, while she was waiting for approval she put her grant toward our Kindergartners planters, beds in front of the school and also she continually helped pay for our composting. We approached her and asked if she would be interested in helping us and she said, "YES"!
While teaching our Social Studies on a Tuesday while one of our parent volunteers came in by the name of Mr. Lampo...he was hearing the lesson and the discussion we were having as a class trying to decide what we can do in our community to make it a better place. So, being a realtor he figured out where the easement was between the City and STEM Lab. He came in and presented to the children how land lines work and how all the pieces together form a community. The students decided that our letter writing from our Language Arts curriculum that we were just beginning should be accomplished through asking the City or Mayor Downing for a piece of land for our community garden on the south side of the tennis courts.
Our STEM coordinator, Tracey Calderon also was on board, connecting us with the City and seeing if what the children wanted was even plausible. The next thing we knew we were meeting with many people from the City saying, "YES" and they even gave us a bigger piece of land on the west side of the tennis courts.
Once we got the land and the city even agreed to take care of the water, help us remove sod, bring trailers, etc. We at STEM were overjoyed. In the meantime, the principals from Hulstrom K-8 and STEM Lab asked all staff to meet with in grade level teams to plan our next unit of study. Once we met the lovely ladies, Lesa Harris, Cathy Twele, and Kim Spence we proposed the Community Garden to them and asked if they would like to work as a community of schools to accomplish this enormous task. They answered with a resounding, "YES"!
We then met as a team and the 5 of us teachers began to meet during and after school planning and mapping out the rest of the year. We began attending Coop Meetings in Adams County and even some of our team began taking gardening classes so that we could understand what was needed and how this all works. We met horticulturist, Alan Richardson! We asked him to help us, he was overjoyed and was willing to be a guest speaker in our classes even. He said, "YES"!!!
At the time we knew we would have to figure out how 2 schools would deal with money. So, we met with Julie Yamasaki our office manager how we could or should do all of this. Julie offered her services on her own accord and guess what we said? YES!!!
The students at both schools began learning about perimeter, area, depth of each garden bed! We didn't even think when we started how trans-disciplinary this project truly was: the students were writing letters, mapping and building a community from our social studies curriculum, covering spatial, geometric, and measurement standards while planning their gardens in blueprint formats using grid paper, color renderings with large 1" square 24" x 36" paper, to Google Sketch Up formatting a 3-D design of their proposal for our garden. The students even presented through a web 2.0 format using Haiku Deck to the City of Northglenn their solution to the problems regarding community vandalism, unhealthy habits, and reaching out to our community since both schools are schools of choice.
Our team of teachers then planned a day that all 126 students would gather together to meet each other and see what each top class color rendered plan for our garden they liked most. The students voted and we listened and the action began!
So many things were happening and we knew that we would need a place to store supplies for our students and our summer workers who have volunteered to work in the garden. So we asked STEM Lab's head custodian if he could help us with any ideas and he said...you got it...."YES"! He offered the shed in the Kindergarten playground for us to use as a utility shed! We love the word...YES!!!
As the project began to take form the lack of resources began to over. At this point, Tracey Calderon, went to Home Depot to take a brick laying class in order to form our beds. Once she arrived and conversations took place it became evident the Home Depot was wanting to help. So, we met with Home Depot and they generously donated timber, laborers, tiles, seed, rebar, equipment, generators...the is endless and continues on. They connected us with Bonnie Growers also, who then generously donated over 200 plants! At this point the joy that overcame all of us was immense. So many people wanting to help us do something that will help others. It is an incredible honor to have so many give to this project.
Between all of us we were able to get compost donated from A1 Organics in Eaton, soils from Pioneer, and yet we were still wondering how we would cover all the expenses. We then started tapping into other things we were doing and realized we could combine this project with a Roots & Shoots project through the Jane Goodall Institute. We decided to join forces with making this world a better place through an act of kindness. So, tada... a little more money to help us out.
The team of 2nd grade teachers then planned a parent meeting realizing we needed more help. The parents brought up many things we had not thought of and again reconfigured. We built a website and started getting more detailed in what we actually wanted and needed. We then planned a "bed-raising" day with our parents/families and together we raised 6 garden beds, a classroom, pathways, etc. The turn out was amazing...we figured that we had close to 150 volunteers that day and just can not believe our good fortune! Everyone said, "Work?..."YES"!
We knew with all the help that we have received that we needed to honor these companies and people. We knew that this would not have happened without the help of so many people working toward the same goal...the goal of providing this Earth, this community a place to go outside, getting connected as a community with our neighbors and schools and providing people with food that are in need. Around this same we had seen in the new wing at the DMNS this beautiful wall that was full of donors names engraved in leaves in their new wing. We thought that this was a perfect way to honor our donors and yet raise some more funds to families/businesses who donate $50 or more!
This is when NGHS got involved also! We learned at the "Farm to Table" event that NGHS have students who can engrave and cut out acrylic leaves and stems to put along our fence. So, now as you can guess, we have yet another partner in this project.
We have our planting day planned for Tuesday, May 6th and we are so excited to hear that a few news stations may come! We have some benches being delivered that day, some more breese, and who knows what else may happen at this point. The Journey is amazing and we can't wait to update you after Tuesday! Oh, and please don't forget that our Grand Opening will be on Friday, May 23rd!!!
Serving You,
The 2nd Grade Team's from Hulstrom K-8 and STEM Lab