Show 'n Tell
New Haven’s Afterschool Garden Club
New Haven’s Afterschool Garden Club was started 3 years ago with an insight from Community Garden Coalition namely Lea Langdon, master gardener and volunteer extraordinaire, in addition to several New Haven teachers. As a committee, we shared the mission and need for students to be exposed to gardening. Efforts were made and the result was the creation of an afterschool garden club. It proved to be a way for children to experience the origin of their food along with the basics of what it takes to prepare a vegetable garden.
Two years after the garden club was established, the committee wrote an Outdoor Classroom Grant from the Missouri Department of Conservation, (http://mdc4.mdc.mo.gov/Documents/231.pdf) to assist the Garden Club in integrating classroom curriculum into gardening. Teachers and students are using the native wildflower garden and raised garden beds containing vegetables to enhance their subject areas learned in the classroom and directly tie into what our gardens produce.
As direct results of the students’ work and experiences, they are extremely proud of their produce and native flowers that have grown in the garden beds. The club is driven by students’ ideas and creativity. One wonderful side outcome has been an increased interest of the children’s parents in starting gardens at their homes.
Submitted by Cheryl Harrison, New Haven Afterschool Garden Club, May 2008.
Ridgeway's Healthy School Classroom Parties
With the belief that most kids get plenty of candy around the holidays, our classroom party committee for the kindergarteners and 1st grade (Unit A classrooms) decided to place a renewed focus on healthier snacks. For our Halloween party snack, we featured witches brooms that the children created. Using pretzel rods for the broom handle and half of a piece of string cheese, the kids shredded one end of the cheese and tied the other end on to the pretzel rod with a piece of licorice. It was a big hit! Other classroom party snacks we featured for the school year 2007-2008, was a trail mix for the Winter Party and smoothies for the Valentine’s Party. The kids chose from a large variety of nuts, dried fruits and M&M's putting together their own mix. For the smoothies, we quickly blended a batch at a time out of milk, strawberries and bananas.
Submitted by Angela Hemwall, Ridgeway Parent, May 2008.
Minor edits by Healthy Foods 4 Healthy Kids Coalition