Self-assessment worksheet questionnairefor Ewing school garden 11-03-2017

2017 Grant from Creating Healthy Communities

1. Gardening as a learning environment

Our school is unique and some of the questions in the summary of our goals will not be applicable. All of our students are developmentally disabled. We serve a variety of children with diagnoses of autism, cerebral palsy,and various syndromes effecting both physical and mental developments. Our educational activities and lessons are unique to their needs and do not follow a typical educational curriculum. Our goal as we embarked on this project was to introduce our children to where food comes from, how itgrows, and what foods that have not been typically offered to them actually taste, smell, feel like when it is fresh.

a. Educational activities that were incorporated included basic math skills such as counting seeds, counting plants, measuring rows, or heights of plants, looking at size, shapes,and basicbotany .

b. Sensory needs of children with autism. The school garden promoted work we call “ heavy work” as it relates to the sensory needs of a child with Autism. Children that might not be able to plant, pick or tend to the garden needs would be asked to shovel, carry water, dig, or spread the soil. The designs of the beds were elevated for ease of reachinginto them and for Wheelchair access.

( I have asked our teachers for input to question 1 regarding specific educational goals.) Specific lesson areas with goals for students with developmental disabilities needs developed by our teachers in a format that that is appropriate for our students.

2. School garden team

a. We started with a specific group from the school that showed an interest in gardening. Our first meeting was January 12th 2017. Two members were teachers, three members were direct staff and three members were in the administration office. We reached out to the community from the master gardens program, and some local interested parties from harvest of hope and the extension office. Our first meeting was attended by 13 people both internal and from the community.

bTraining was done on a individual basis with specific persons from the committee assigned to the classrooms to be the “advisors” From the construction of the beds ,to the actual planting . We only had 6 weeks before school was dismissed from the building of the beds to our summer break. Each advisor contacted the teachers and assisted as needed and requested. The students in each classroom were involved in the choice of plants and seeds. When school resumed in the fall our goal was to continue with harvesting, maintenance of the beds and planting for a fall garden. During the summer as plants were matured, new plantings were done so the students returned to a full garden still very productive.

c. Most of the “work” involved in the planning phaseof the construction was done by two members of the garden committee. But the actual construction of the beds was done with volunteer help of 9 persons. This phase was completed in 3 days

*** attached the mission statement from our first school meeting , original estimated materials and design

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3. Parents, Community and Networking

The garden committee sent out letters to the local business and parents requesting donations and assistance. This was a critical part of our success in building the 9 beds. We were able to secure donations of compost soil, building materials at cost from Lowes, donation of plants from a local greenhouse andtwo person labor provided by Lowes for the construction day. The extra donations doubled the amount of beds we were financially able to complete. We also looked toward the long term maintenance of the beds as we chose a site that already had fencing in place. We also utilized a very heavy landscaping material between the beds and covered this material with maintenance free gravel. We utilized the sidewalks in the center of the beds for wheel chair access. The actual construction project of the beds was completed in 5 hours. We also included a classroom of our older students that helped with some of the labor from carrying the lumber, filling the beds with soil, spreading gravel and building compost bins. This phase was completed in three days with students and teachers working every day for a few hours during their recess time.

4. Extracurricular activities.

Our garden area is in a fenced area and it has a nice gazebo with a grill and picnic tables next to the beds. This area has not had formal parties, but many students with more involved physical limitations and in wheelchairs will sit under the shade while watching their classmates be more involved in the actual work. We have utilized our herb bed as a sensory bed with many opportunities for smelling and feeling the plants. Our future plans include a few “ garden parties”

5. Garden maintenance needs

a. During the school year: Each classroom (we have a total of 5 and a preschool department) was assigned a specific bed ( 6 beds ) we also have a school perennial herb and ever bearing strawberry bed. The volunteers that were involved in the original plan were “ overseers “ of the garden needs. Some of the duties were done directly by the “ assigned “overseer” , weeding, tying tomatoes, etc. and some of the duties were done by the students with reminders and sometimes with direct supervision of what needed done, for the particular project. Example: classroom 5, “ please have a student water your beds today.” Because our students have challenging disabilities, some fine motor jobs were not applicable to their abilities.

b. Summer needs: Each week over the summer 2 persons from our volunteer pool were assigned to oversee the garden needs. This included watering, weeding, pest management, to harvesting. We utilized a check list form that was designed to remind the volunteer of what needed to be checked, and what they could do while on the weekly assignment. This form was also our way to sharecommunication to each other about our week’s progress. The check list was hung on a clip board next to the outside utility cabinet that was purchased with the grant funding. We utilized a water gauge to have the volunteer check the amount of rain fall the previous few days. Our school was fortunate that 3 members of the garden committee worked during the summer hours and they were critical in the success of monitoring the needs of the beds. If someone was not able to attend their assigned week, our summer school employees were the backup contact and proceeded to make sure the critical area of harvest and watering were accomplished.

*** attached the summer garden service needs form and calendar used during the summer.

6. Teacher training.

We had very little formal ‘teacher training” in respect to the curriculum. As we look toward future plans and development, this is an area that needs developed for future gardens. The assigned “master gardener” for each room tended to direct he topic for classroom learning by the needs that were apparent at the time.

7. Student involvement.

Each classroom had a specific bed that they were assigned to maintain. They choose the plants they wanted to grow with the input of the 1:1 aides in many cases. The aides were more involved than some of our students due to their developmental delays in many of the actual “work related activities”, such as planting fine seeds, and weeding. We found that many of the 1:1 aides and teachers learned more about gardens than the students. Our school has a life skills room which was utilized to help prepare many of the foods that were harvested.

Our classrooms are divided into levels and by certain diagnostic criteria. Our school varies from preschool to age 21.