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Table of Contents

Cover Story

Cover Story - Spanish Version

Mini-Lesson

Comprehension Quiz

Teacher's Guide and Worksheets

Lessons from the Garden

Spanish Translation

Vickie An

School gardens are sprouting up across the nation. These outdoor classrooms are ripe with lessons on science, nutrition and more.

For the students at Woodland Elementary West in Gages Lake, Illinois, the arrival of spring means one thing: time to get planting! Each year, the kids trade in their textbooks for shovels and head to the school harvest garden. They will plant seeds to grow fruits and vegetables. Then, they will tend the garden. In early fall, students will harvest, or collect, the produce. Gardening is part of the school's science curriculum.

Woodland's project is part of a larger trend that has taken root across the U.S. More schools are using garden activities to teach science, math and even history. Educators believe that the hands-on lessons give students a deeper, richer understanding of the subjects.

Back to Nature

Learning gardens began growing in popularity in the U.S. in the late 1800s. During World Wars I and II, produce from school gardens helped feed the country. But in the 1950s, school gardens lost popularity as science classes moved beyond nature study to other topics.

Today, concerns over nutrition and childhood obesity have sparked renewed interest in gardens. Studies show that kids who work outdoors are healthier. They also score higher on science achievement tests. This is no surprise to gardening expert Anne Nagro. "When learning about soil, if students can explore in it, it sinks in more," she says. Nagro volunteers at the Woodland plot. Her book, Our Generous Garden, tells of the school's garden project.

Here We Grow!

According to the National Garden Association (NGA), there are 1,500 school gardens in the U.S. But many more school gardens are not registered with the NGA.

Nearly 4,000 school gardens exist in California alone. One of those is the vegetable patch at Alice Fong Yu Alternative School, in San Francisco. Stephanie Ma is the garden coordinator there. She says her goal is to connect kids to the foods they eat. "I try to instill in the kids that apples don't magically come from the supermarket," Ma says. Students plant everything from tomatoes to chard, a leafy green. Ma says the kids love eating veggies straight from the garden.

Seeds of Change

By fall, the Woodland garden is ripe with peppers, cucumbers and broccoli. It's time to harvest. Third grader Teaghan Brennan says she likes that job the best. "It's like a scavenger hunt," she told TFK. "You have to look at all the vegetables to find the ones that are ready to be picked."

The school donates the produce to a local food bank. Giving back to the community is a lesson that Woodland principal Ann Goldbach hopes to nurture. "I want students to appreciate what they've done and how it can help the community," she says. Teaghan likes that her hard work helps others. "Everyone can make a difference," she says.

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