Special needs garden at Marshall High School thanks to the help of Bain & Company volunteers!
We want to see every child grow! We want to see them express themselves and learn new concepts to help make the world a better place. Enrich LA is all about growing. From growing tasty foods for eating, to expanding our curriculum and outreach to Los Angeles’ diverse communities. We are proud of the work we have accomplished for LAUSD schools, and we are looking forward to taking on new roles within our organization. Enrich LA is currently wishing to expand our gardening curriculum to better integrate special needs pedagogy. Statistically, more than a million children in California live with an ongoing health problem, whether it be – emotional, physical, or developmental. These impediments make it challenging for children with special needs to have the same experiences with education that their peers, without these disadvantages, possess. These experiences can consist of physical activities, time to interact with their peers beyond a traditional classroom environment, and learning LAUSD curriculum that requires one to make independent choices. Enrich LA would like to incorporate all students, regardless of special needs, into our school gardens and use a curriculum that best helps them understand the joys of gardening and inspires their love of nature and respect for our Earth.
We want to give special thanks to all the volunteers from Bain & Company who helped us build our special needs garden at Marshall High School. Despite the sweltering summer heat, these volunteers were enthusiastic and hard working! We look forward to building more special needs gardens and expanding our Garden Ranger Program!
Composting All the Way!
By Hillary Williams |
Purple Kale is a Huge Hit at T.S. King Middle School
By Andrea Richards |
Pride in Our Garden at T.S. King Middle School
By Andrea Richards |
From Earthworms to Kale Tacos at KIPP Comienza
By Denise Villalobos |
Worms Are Our Friends at Bushnell Way Elementary!
By Rocio Prado |
Discovering Seeds at El Sereno Elementary
By Sarah Heder |
A Compost Relay at Atwater Elementary
By Sarah Heder |
The Wait for Water is Over- Berendo is Blooming!
By Catherine Siefert |
Ladybugs, Seeds, & Weeds at 2nd Street!
By Catherine Siefert |
Vine St Gardeners
By Seema Sundaresh |
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…
A world beneath our feet… ALC students dig it up
“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. ”…
Sprouts for the Sprouts at Mid-City’s Prescott
The 1st and 2nd graders of Mid-City’s Prescott School of Enriched Sciences (the sprouts, the 3rd, 4th and 5th graders are the seedlings…) watched these radish babies grow from seed to seedling and last week we discovered why root vegetables sometimes grow hugging each other…like these carrots… Once roots start to grow and grow under…
Stewardship at Taking the Reins
Every Sunday I teach at Taking the Reins, a non-profit dedicated to building their four core concepts: responsibility, confidence, teamwork and leadership to teen girls in LA. Last Sunday, our main lesson was on garden troubleshooting and land stewardship where we made a list of things to do when you walk into the garden: watch…
Growing in the City…
Between Westlake (McArthur Park) and Downtown LA you’ll find Miguel Contreras Learning Complex, a high school made up of several ‘sub’ schools. One of them, the Academic Leadership Community or simply ALC. The after school garden group meets every Tuesday from 1:30-3PM in a small but oh so mighty garden overlooking downtown. From day one,…
The Wait for Water is Over- Berendo is Blooming!
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…
Ladybugs, Seeds, & Weeds at 2nd Street!
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…
Getting Kids Going with Composting @ Micheltorena
Kids are awesome! No, really, they are! They intuitively get things that take adults years to understand, and they don’t have all of these ingrained barriers. With that said, let’s get dirty. Compost. EWWWWWW right? Not really as it turns out, I only heard one “ew” from my classes and we moved on. I was…
Adjusting Lessons for Autistic and Special Needs Kids @ Micheltorena
One of my biggest challenges has been teaching children on the autism spectrum, not because they are different, but because I had such a limited scope of what these kids are able to accomplish individually. Initially, I believed that the lessons were too complicated for them to grasp, and after seeing how well they adjusted…
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle @ Micheltorena
The kids at Micheltorena had a great time with our reduce, reuse, recycle lesson. Not only were the kids already fairly aware about recycling, but they were ready to get their hands dirty by helping me sort items we use on an everyday basis at home. After reviewing definitions of reduce, reuse, recycle, we laid…