SPEC School Gardens Program

In partnership with the Think & Eat Green At Schools Project and thanks to the Vancouver Foundation, SPEC worked with Student Teachers in UBC's Bachelor in Education program to enhance student experiences and introduce new teachers to the world of School Gardens.  Here is what one of the student teachers had to say on the experience "First of all, I would never think it would be possible to have a garden at school, let alone harvesting and sharing the produce with (the) children. Also, I learned how to manage a harvest with young children and how enjoyable and educational it can be for them." Students facilitated lessons on pollination and helped with harvests including potatoes. In another student teacher's words "I loved the potato harvest with the Ks especially, the whole event was magical from the students trying to guess how many potatoes they would find (8-50 were the guesses) to them exclaiming identically as each was uncovered." How

Students at L’École Bilingue harvested much of the spring crops they had planted on June 18th!    Grade 1s collected their giant sunflower plants to take home and care for in their own gardens.   Kindergarten students harvested their early potato crop and were surprised to find over 200 potatoes despite last yield of only 14. Grade 2 students pruned the garlic scapes off the tops of their plants in order to allow the bulbs to fully mature, while   Grade 3 students harvested peas, corn mache (a type of lettuce) and basil.   A second Kindergarten class also harvested the following day, with nasturtiums, curly lettuces and kale collected in preparation for the next day’s harvest party.   The students were brought out to the beds in small groups by UBC Student Teachers doing a Community Field Based Experience practicum, but the planting and care of the garden over the past few months had been done by students, parent volunteers and Marnie Newell of SPEC.   T