Great Garden Adventure at Ellis Elementary
Everyone showed up for Raymond Ellis Elementary School's Garden themed field day to help plant their school gardens and celebrate a year of learning and hard work.
The event filled day consisted of traditional field day games and activities but also included sessions geared to ramp up excitement for the school's newly installed raised gardens.
Gardening themed stations included a stop at the raised garden beds where students received a hands-on lesson in proper planting techniques from the Lake County Extension Master Gardeners. Primary grade students were in charge of planting seeds in the gardens and the older students transplanted small plants that were started in the Extension greenhouse. Students also got to plant a green bean seed in a small pot that they will get to take home to watch it grow.
Inside, students got to showcase their artistic skills at the new garden themed wall mural and listen to presentations from the fifth graders about the types of vegetables that everyone planted in the school garden. There was even a garden themed story for students to listen to mixed in with all the festivities.
Fifth grade teacher, Katie Wishau spearheads the school garden project with the help from the school librarian and other school staff.
"I have had a garden for the past three or four years and I've always thought that there is so much to learn," said Wishau, who pitched the idea of a school garden to her principal, "we have the land, why not put it to good use."
Wishau has been using The Great Garden Detective curriculum from the USDA to guide her learning and help incorporate gardening into the rest of her curriculum. The school's PTO even raised funds to purchase a grow light so the students could learn more about the parts and life cycle of a plant.
"We have students that come in every day, get their breakfast, and go sit and eat by the grow lights to watch the plants," Wishau said. "The students are very excited about the garden."
School gardening has increased in popularity over the past couple of years and for good reason. School gardens have shown to increase students' attitudes and consumption of fruits and vegetables. They even help students foster an appreciation for working with adults from their community and improving the neighborhood.
"We're starting to see more schools show an interest in school gardening to help support nutrition education," said Extension SNAP-Ed Educator Dale Kehr, "we're now partnering with several schools to help get them started in their school gardening projects."
Starting a school gardening project can be a daunting task, especially in the first year. When asked what advice she had for other teachers that are interested in starting a school gardening program at their school, Wishau said, "Get in touch with Extension, first of all. We would probably not be doing this today had we not gotten in contact with them."
After school lets out, the community, teachers and students will be responsible for the care of the school gardens. Anyone that comes over the summer to help out will get to share the produce that is harvested.
To learn more about starting a school garden, contact Dale Kehr, 847-223-8627 or dalekehr@illinois.edu.
About SNAP-Education: The Supplemental Nutrition Education Program Education (SNAP-Ed) is nutrition education that is available to SNAP recipients and other limited-resource individuals and families. We focus on nutrition education and obesity prevention in an interactive, evidence-based, and behavior-change focused format.
About University of Illinois Extension: University of Illinois Extension is the flagship outreach effort of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, offering educational programs to residents of all of Illinois' 102 counties - and far beyond.
For Further Information Contact:
Source: Dale Kehr, Extension SNAP-Ed Educator, 847-223-8627
News Writer: Kimberly Steele, Extension Marketing Coordinator, 847-223-8627