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As our session came to a close in December, we checked our compost tumbler for the last time. We’d been adding and turning since school started, and it was getting almost too heavy to turn. Looked good, smelled good, felt good. So each student filled up a small plant container with some of the new…
This rainy day craft was so much fun and good enough to eat. And some tried! Using different shapes of pasta to describe the lifecycle of a butterfly was a hit with our little gardeners and chefs. Once they got past the sheer variety of noodles one can find at the grocery store, they got…
The winter solstice has come and gone once again. It’s still chilly, as winter should be, but the shadows are getting shorter and shorter all the time. The seeds that I first planted when I began caring for the garden 3 months ago are now ready to harvest! Celery, beets, radishes, broccoli and peas are…
September is a great time for tidying up a garden. Here in California, we are kind of in between seasons for planting, so you enjoy the last fruits of the summer and clean up the dead stuff. The middle schoolers at Van Nuys are great at this hands-on work. We pulled out dead green bean…
This week I needed to finish up learning the students’ names and we needed to learn about seeds. Because this lesson took place the literal day before LAUSD went on winter break there was a lot of excitement in the air. My first class of students came by dressed in their Christmas best. They were…
Change is constant in a garden, and at KIPP Comienza our final lesson of the year began with a new rotation. Our new groups were introduced to the garden space where they learned how it offers opportunities to use their senses as well as what makes up a food chain. Lessons were held in their…
First learning what is compost and the ingredients needed to make it We gather the materials on our list and mix them together in our piles and containers We also add some non-organic materials (plastic bags and tin foil) in order to determine if those items can also decompose As the weeks pass we will…
Today in the garden we went out to look for mini ecosystems. I explained to the students that an ecosystem consist of plants and animals (living organisms) interacting with the environment ( air, water, soil, weather). We talked about how an ecosystem can be influenced by many factors, living and non-living that can change the…
First learning what is compost and the ingredients needed to make it We gather the materials on our list and mix them together in our piles and containers We also add some non-organic materials (plastic bags and tin foil) in order to determine if those items can also decompose As the weeks pass we will…
The preschoolers at Sullivan have been learning about trees in the classroom. So to help support their learning, we did several hands on activities related to trees out in the garden. We observed various types of leaves growing from trees in our garden. Some are large, some small and some are green while others have…
First learning what is compost and the ingredients needed to make it We gather the materials on our list and mix them together in our piles and containers We also add some non-organic materials (plastic bags and tin foil) in order to determine if those items can also decompose As the weeks pass we will…
At EnrichLA, our mission is to bring edible school gardens to all Los Angeles schools. As part of that mission, we want to teach students how to become responsible and empowered stewards of the environment. One of the greatest lessons students can learn is the incredible process of composting: how grass clippings and food scraps…
First learning what is compost and the ingredients needed to make it We gather the materials on our list and mix them together in our piles and containers We also add some non-organic materials (plastic bags and tin foil) in order to determine if those items can also decompose As the weeks pass we will…
Learning about roots can be fun especially when kindergarten gets to see first hand a carrot, pulled from their own garden! We also saw beets, leeks and radishes growing in the garden. All were great examples of various types of roots! The carrots were the most exciting though and yummy too!
Because a few teachers requested it, I decided to teach the parts of a seed this week. I had emailed the teachers ahead of time asking them to have their students bring their journals to garden class. I then proceeded to draw the parts of a seed on my own whiteboard and asked that they…
First learning what is compost and the ingredients needed to make it We gather the materials on our list and mix them together in our piles and containers We also add some non-organic materials (plastic bags and tin foil) in order to determine if those items can also decompose As the weeks pass we will…
Last week at 20th St. Elementary was a bit hectic. Their schedule was altered a bit because of their Christmas performances, but we made due! I began the lessons by asking them questions to reference previous lessons: what vegetables and fruits are in season in the winter? what kinds of veggies and fruits do we…
Last week I started a new unit at Utah Street Elementary, but because one teacher was indisposed I finally got to meet them this week. The kindergarten class showed up enthusiastic and ready to learn this morning. I let them know I would 1. learn their names using the name game, 2. we would get…
This activity kept Firestone students engaged, moving and thinking! First, I placed 4 different soil samples and some supplies on 4 separate tables ( a paper bag, 6 pencils and about 26-30 small pieces of paper big enough to write one word). I then covered them with a towel. I explained they would be looking,…
I brought the garden to the kids on a raining day at Ramona. We learned the differences between roots, fruits and vegetables then played a sorting game to test their knowledge. Some of the cards had fruit, roots or vegetables that they had never heard of. The kids had to use the information they learned…
Amazing Imagery at 6th Avenue
As we wrap up the fall semester, we are seeing the first harvest from our early fall plantings. The students planted mini radishes and are now beginning to harvest 🙂 With our 1st graders, we did the a 5 senses lesson combined with learning about “imagery” in the garden. The students were asked to then…
Fall Art with Maple Leaves at Weemes
It has been an amazing fall semester at Weemes Elementary! The students have been full of ideas about what we can do in the garden and how we can utilize the materials we find in every space of our edible oasis. Last week, we utilized an idea from one of our 5th graders and reused…
The 5th and 6th graders learned about the concept “farm to table”. This means getting their food from local sources, like a farmer’s market or a garden in their backyard. We had good discussions about food miles, freshness of food, shelf life, nutrition, and food waste. The students split up into groups and walked through…
The 4th graders had a lesson called “Corn to Tortilla” and we had a blast making tortillas from scratch! We talked a lot about the Mayans and the significance of corn in their culture. It was pouring rain outside for the second week in a row, so we ended up in the library for our…
Plants aren’t the only ones who love to be sung to
No I don’t sing to my students. But I do sing their praises! At Taking the Reins this month, the program director on site, Misty, and I met to talk about how we can best serve the girls in the gardening classes. There are students in my classes from different backgrounds, with different needs.…
Gardening is more than dealing with seeds
I love seeing girls feel safe enough to be themselves. Gardening classes at Taking the Reins have provided this beautiful space for girls from all different backgrounds to show up together, learn, be silly, and discover together. I like to give the girls room to exhibit leadership and creativity during classes. So this month we…
A few months ago, I trained under master gardener extraordinaire, Alexys. She brought out a gardening journal that was given to her by a family member and I just fell in love. I’ve been documenting my personal garden on Insta, via texts, in journals, you name it! So, if we’re going to work with kids,…
It’s time for winter break, and although the kids are probably so excited about the time off, it’s a bittersweet time for me as a garden ranger. Week 6 was our last session for this rotation and I couldn’t be more proud of my upper classes. Not only have these kids grown tremendously, but I…
To close out our fall semester of garden classes, we held a harvest festival of all the fresh lettuces, kales, and veggies growing in our garden! There was so much variety to pick from and everyone enjoyed identifying the different flavors and textures of our many different lettuces, kales, and chards (so much good color…
Y’all better crunch those leaves at Toluca Lake!
We LOVE fall. Love it. We are so thankful for those falling leaves that add lovely carbon material to our compost bin. Some of the training rangers and I built a pallet compost at TLES and it have been beautiful! The parent center has been adding coffee grounds and I have been bringing in food…
End of Autumn Flowers at Carson Gore
Our bright pink zinnias and lantana bushes were needing a trim, so our creative little gardeners took our piles of cuttings and made flower bouquets to take home. The kids love the flowers that grow in the garden as much as the fruits and veggies. At this age, the boys still nudge their noses…
January 10th. That is when enrichla and our 100 partner school gardens will ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING EXTRA about our FOOTPRINT problem. We will begin to divert lunch waste from the school lunches into our gardens. We have thought this through. Here are the collector buckets, just arrived. They will be used ( 5 gallons, green.…
A great way to end a session is to make a fresh salad with ingredients straight from the garden! Everyone worked together to slice, chop and dice, tomatoes and various types of kale, green onions and carrots. We also added pomegranate seeds and dressed the salad with a splash of vinager, sea salt and a…
Today the students walked into a smelly garden. It was a familiar smell for some, easily identified by a taboo word “poop”. Not just any old poo, but what is called manure from specific animals. Today we learned that using manure in the garden has numerous benefits. Manure is packed with nutrients tha plants need…
With a very high population of Hispanic students, we were thrilled to celebrate and talk about Dia de los Muertos! We also have the movie Coco to thank for getting kids educated and excited about this holiday. We are now working with fourth grade students and our main concept is diversity. We discuss native plants…
Learning about how soil is made is amazing. It’s been happening since the beginning of our Earth; the recycling of organic matter rich with nutrients, transformed into exactly what a plant needs. This week the kids at Woodlawn participated in “feeding” their compost bin with dead leaves, twigs and shredded paper from the school. They…
Getting to know herbs couldn’t be more fun when you play a game that gets the kids moving, touching and smelling plants in the garden. Today we did just that! I filled each of my “Touch and Feel” containers with an herb, labled the containers 1 thru 6 and placed one herb in each container;…
Making a prediction, a hypothesis or a claim is an important step to solving a question. At Aspire Gateway students had lots of questions about their favorite isopod in the garden; the pill bug. So we set up an experiment to learn what type of immediate environment pill bugs prefer; moist soil, dry soil, leafy…
Last week at Valley View Elementary School, the kindergarteners learned the value of composting. They knew how to use the bin but hadn’t learned the art of proper composting. We played a little relay game and discussed what goes in the bin and what should be put in the recycling or trash bin…
Getting preschoolers to vocalize and describe what they touch and feel can be challenging at times especially in a group setting where there are varying degrees of development in a classroom. So we played a fun game to get them talking (and learning) about fruits and vegetables that grow in their garden! First we harvested…
Plants and its natural world is a mystery, splendor, and yet to be fully discovered and understood. Many plants are also at risk or almost extinct from their natural habitat. Plants not only clean the air, water, soil… they provide food and shelter for animals and humans. Students observed Venus Flytraps and asked themselves questions about…
I decided to modify a lesson to include exercises on describing using adjectives. After several attempts at tasting a beet salad and an apple and arugula salad, I noticed that when I asked students how they tasted, a lot of students responded using the words “weird,” “gross,” or “good.” As I explained to the students,…
Plants and its natural world is a mystery, splendor, and yet to be fully discovered and understood. Many plants are also at risk or almost extinct from their natural habitat. Plants not only clean the air, water, soil… they provide food and shelter for animals and humans. Students observed Venus Flytraps and asked themselves questions about…
Plants and its natural world is a mystery, splendor, and yet to be fully discovered and understood. Many plants are also at risk or almost extinct from their natural habitat. Plants not only clean the air, water, soil… they provide food and shelter for animals and humans. Students observed Venus Flytraps and asked themselves questions about…
We’ve been getting some great harvests at our garden here at Dominguez! And today was no different! We’ve been on a mission to revive the fruit orchard and on my 3rd year teaching the students here, we are seeing the fruits of our labor. Pun intended, lol. We’ve shovel, fertilized, aerated, watered, pruned and loved…
The apple tree in the TAS garden has given us a nice supply of fruit this season. The kids never tired of our crispy cut up snacks and learning about this delicious food. I asked them to find out something interesting about apples and they wrote about how apples are part of the…
I had let the students know I was going to bring worms so they were all very excited. When the class of kindergarteners came into the garden, they immediately swarmed around me asking “are we going to see the worms today?!” I laughed and said yes. They eyed my large worm farm container with excitement.…
Hard work and dedication From bell to bell. With the garden treated for invasive weed growth over the summer, I told the my students that we would be building our garden from the soil UP, and it wouldn’t be as easy as picking daisies. They smirked and smiled and accepted the challenge! Learning to grow…
Since we’ve been working together in the garden for almost 3 months now, we are happy to have so much to harvest. Carrots, onions, radishes, broccoli, a variety of lettuces, and a crazy amount of kale! So this week we decided to do some outdoor cooking and make a cheesy purple kale dip that we could…
One of the big challenges of a school garden is to make it useable for all–it shouldn’t be a museum where students can only look at what is inside or a pristine place limited to only the kids who are enrolled in a garden class. At King, we are lucky to have a garden that…
Plants and its natural world is a mystery, splendor, and yet to be fully discovered and understood. Many plants are also at risk or almost extinct from their natural habitat. Plants not only clean the air, water, soil… they provide food and shelter for animals and humans. Students observed Venus Flytraps and asked themselves questions about…
Plants and its natural world is a mystery, splendor, and yet to be fully discovered and understood. Many plants are also at risk or almost extinct from their natural habitat. Plants not only clean the air, water, soil… they provide food and shelter for animals and humans. Students observed Venus Flytraps and asked them self questions…
I told the kids, “We’ve got to know the garden like the back of our hands.” And there’s no better way to achieve this than putting those hands in the soil! And so we did. But before that, we harvested our drying sunflowers so that we could try them raw and hopefully roast them with…
There are beans everywhere. Coming out of our ears. Drowning our sorrows away. Keeping our digestive track going. We did a taste test with a few of our peas to see if we enjoyed peas or beans more. Peas won by a long haul but most students said they enjoyed both. We have been harvesting…
From Earthworms to Kale Tacos at KIPP Comienza
Garden time this month for our friends at KIPP Comienza involved learning about compost, harvesting, and the butterfly cycle. Our compost lesson began with a short lesson on the compost cycle and was followed by a card game they played in pairs. We played with three different cycles: apples, bananas, and pumpkins; the objective was…
The students at El Sereno Elementary discovered that seeds come in all different shapes and sizes. They had fun investigating the seeds and guessing what plant the seed would turn into. And then finding some of the plants in our garden! We examined lima beans and cut them in half in order to see all…
One of the 4th grade classes at Atwater Elementary participated in a compost relay race. It was pouring rain outside in the garden so we had the race in the library. The students were placed in 5 different groups and had to complete 8 tasks to finish the race. Before we started the race, we…
This month at Berendo Middle School, the students learned about the soil pie chart, producers & consumers, climates & seasons, and parts of plants. This was these students first exposure to the garden so there was lots to learn! With the construction going on, the water had been turned off for a couple weeks so…
This month, the students at 2nd Street Elementary learned about dirt, friends & foes, seasons, and parts of plants. This was these students’ first exposure to the garden class so we were starting from ground zero- very exciting! For the “Let’s Talk Dirt” lesson, the students got their hands dirty touching some wet clay soil…
This month Vine St students worked hard on creating a good environment to cultivate and grow new plants. We learned about what we can compost and where we can put our food scraps to make healthy organic matter to add to our beds. We learned about water conservation and spread hay over our beds to…
Riverside Garden loves that sun!
At Riverside Dr. Charter we are starting with the basics in each class. The first rotation began the year in an almost empty garden-which was great! we planted LOADS of beans to help bring nitrogen to our soil, sugar snap peas, and flowers. With the weather still being quite warm, we were not ready to…
This month at Gardner Elementary, we talked about the importance of composting and reducing our waste in the world and built a compost pile when they can easily be taken to create new things, new life. We learned about what native plants means and talked about the benefits and deficits of growing non-native plants in…
There was an abundance of fruit and now there’s an abundance of seeds to harvest at Arroyo Seco! Seeds can travel in multitudes of ways and we’re pretty certain that some birds or squirrels will be eating and defecating some of these seeds to start a garden in another place. But we were able to…
Our Mayberry students took this week to learn the parts of a plant, both the visible and invisible parts. Students put on their observation hats and with their notebooks into the garden to find the six basic parts of a plant. For our younger students, we used our bodies to demonstrate how a plant grows…
What is a watershed? Easy, if you are standing on the ground right now, just look down. You’re standing, and everyone is standing, in a watershed. A watershed is the area of land where all of the water that falls in it and drains off of it goes to a common outlet. Watersheds can be…
Calvert Elementary is located in Woodland Hills and this put their school close enough to the recent fires that we took our garden class indoors. I decided to test the savvy fifth grader’s research and presentation skills. I assigned groups different insects and animals and I allowed them to decide what they wanted to learn…
Become a member and get rewards
Our interdisciplinary curriculum provides youth opportunities to explore in an outdoor setting. We teach K-12 students everything from cooking skills to environmental stewardship and history to social justice. It is rooted in the principals of both place-based and experiential learning models. for the remainder of 2018, if you become a FLOWER member at $100 we…
I find it interesting that I can plan a lesson thoroughly, have an extensive list of Plan Bs in case things don’t go according to plan, and yet, I am still consistently surprised. This past week, I was teaching the Food Chain. Many of the older grades had already learned about the food chain, but…
There are many non profits out there. They all sound great. Why ENRICHLA? We are down to earth, no nonsense and hard working. We are irreverent and we are ambitious. We are like no other non-profit. Nobody here makes more than a school district custodian. ($38,000) Everybody gets their hands dirty. We are efficient. We…
Compost Relay at 6th Avenue Elementary 🙂
Before the holiday, one of our 4th grade classes learned about the ingredients to make great compost. We went over the 5 key ingredients desired for great compost: greens, browns, decomposers, air and water. After this, the students were split into 4 teams and had the task of gathering all the elements to make our…
Before the holiday, our kindergarten class at Weemes did a very special lesson about parts of a flower. We went over the four parts of a flower including the roots, stem, leaves and flower. After this, each student received their own flower. We slowly and delicately took our flowers apart as a class and each…
Getting organized at Taking the Reins
“How do we know when to harvest?” aaaah…. a hunch? a feel? it smells right? fruit’s the right size? Why don’t we make a harvest calendar! Pulling out the trusty UC Master Gardener Handbook and looking up the approximate harvest time for each of our plants. The girls are attentive! Also, though it is…
“Eeeeeewwwwwwwwww!” said ALC student. “What did I do?” said squirmy worm exposed to the sunlight. “Worms are amazing. Here, grab one and I’ll tell you about what they do” said Garden Ranger. “Their poop is really good for the plants and they create air pockets for roots. Worms are legit.” said other ALC student. ”…