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Take a Break...and Garden!

School:: Spruce Creek Elementary School
Subject:: Science
Teacher:: Karen Weinrich
Students Impacted:: 800
Grade:: K-5
Date:: September 12, 2023

58% Funded

Only $410.00 Needed

Impact to My Classroom

# of Students Impacted: 750

Since receiving this grant, I was able to purchase a swinging chair that overlooks my garden. Students and staff of all grade levels use this chair both as a way to relax, and as a way to regulate when upset. The plant on the trellis are about to flower, which will add a beautiful smell.

In addition, all grade levels study plants and have been able to use the garden to observe the plant life cycle. Instead of harvesting the bok choy I planted, I am letting it grow to seed so students can observe the changes. It currently has beautiful yellow flowers on it.

We also planted sunflowers, which have dried up and were harvested to seed. We will use these seeds to plant sunflowers for students to give for Mother's Day.

We are also growing and harvesting beans, tomatoes, brussels sprouts, and cabbage.

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Full view of the garden

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Bok choy flowers, which will go to seed.

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Cherry tomatoes

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Cabbage, brussels sprouts, and sunflower ready to

Original Grant Overview

Goal

For the past two years, Futures has funded a garden at Spruce Creek Elementary. This garden has been used in both second and fourth grades to support science standards. When gardening, my students and I have noticed how many other students in other grades are fascinated by the garden and want to help. I would like to expand the garden, adding a sitting area where students who are dysregulated or upset can come to cool down, relax, and then help tend the garden. Our school is a PBIS school, so teachers can also use the garden area as a PBIS reward. This will support both our School Improvement Plan as well as K-5 science standards. My overall goal is to make the garden a place where the whole school can come enjoy, calm down, and maintain.

What will be done with my students

This grant will enable Spruce Creek Elementary to install two benches and two trellises near the garden, providing a shaded place for students who need a break to come and relax, being calmed by using all of their senses to observe the plants. Students will be able to observe various plants being grown, supporting the science standards below. They will even be able to eat some fresh vegetables. Gardening gloves will be available so students can pull weeds and help plant.

Again this year the goal of the project is to maintain the gardens year-round, exposing students to many different types of plants that grow in different Florida seasons. This grant will also help replenish some of the soil and seeds to continue the success of the garden for the third year.

Science standards supported include:
SC.K.L.14.3: Observe plants and animals, describe how they are alike and how they are different in the way they look and in the things they do.
SC.1.L.14.1: Make observations of living things and their environment using the five senses.
SC.1.L.14.2: Identify the major parts of plants, including stem, roots, leaves, and flowers.
SC.2.L.16.1: Observe and describe major stages in the life cycles of plants and animals, including beans and butterflies.
SC.3.L.17.1: Describe how animals and plants respond to changing seasons.
SC.3.L.15.2: Classify flowering and nonflowering plants into major groups such as those that produce seeds, or those like ferns and mosses that produce spores, according to their physical characteristics.
SC.4.L.16.1: Identify processes of sexual reproduction in flowering plants, including pollination, fertilization (seed production), seed dispersal, and germination.
SC.4.L.16.4: Compare and contrast the major stages in the life cycles of Florida plants and animals, such as those that undergo incomplete and complete metamorphosis, and flowering and nonflowering seed-bearing plants.
SC.5.L.17.1: Compare and contrast adaptations displayed by animals and plants that enable them to survive in different environments such as life cycle variations, animal behaviors, and physical characteristics.

In addition, our School Improvement Plan strives for a “Positive Culture and Environment” and this grant will support that goal.

Benefits to my students

All Spruce Creek Elementary students, faculty, and staff, will now have an area they can come and sit and enjoy the garden, which will be full of both vegetables and flowers. Science standards will be easily supported by a class visit to the garden. Students who need a place to go to when they are upset will be able to go to the garden and use their five senses to reconnect and ground themselves.

Students will also experience first-hand how food is grown and be able to taste the vegetables fresh from the plants.

Budget Narrative

The budget will be used mainly to buy two trellises, two benches, and stepping stones that lead to the benches. As one of the largest elementary schools in the county, we need two sitting areas to provide room for multiple students to use it at the same time. The remainder of the budget will be used to support the garden and purchase student gloves and tools to help maintain the garden, as well as a waterproof storage box to hold them.

Items

#	Item	Cost
1	2 garden arch trellises	$140.00
2	2 outdoor garden benches	$270.00
3	12 pink jasmine plants	$85.00
4	3 packs of stepping stones	$150.00
5	Flowers	$60.00
6	children's gardening gloves	$50.00
7	waterproof outdoor storage box	$50.00
8	child gardening tools	$40.00
9	potting soil	$100.00
10	worms	$25.00
	Total:	$970.00