Learn How to Make a School Garden

The development of School Gardens in schools, according to studies, favors the emotional and cognitive development of students. This is because it is possible to apply the theoretical lesson on how plants grow and germinate in practice, as well as to keep track. In addition, it allows to create a sense of belonging and commitment in children. For all these reasons, I invite you to learn how to make a School Garden.

SCHOLAR ORCHARD

The School Garden and its elaboration

As its name indicates, a School Garden is a horticultural crop grown within the school facilities. The objective of the School Gardens is to carry out complementary activities to those within the classrooms that serve to positively involve students of different ages and school stages, depending on their own priorities to study.

Services

School Gardens have multiple benefits, specialists have suggested that carrying out a project of this type establish its own specific objectives, taking into consideration the main ones. Its construction will be conditioned by the age of the students and the resources of the institution. Listed below are some of the objectives to be considered for the development of a School Garden.

  • Encourage contact with nature through knowledge of plants
  • Learn to know nature to create affective ties with the environment where we live and natural environments
  • Be responsible in the use of water resources
  • Keep track of the growth and development of living beings, in this case plants.
  • Reconnect with nature even if you are in the city
  • Learn to make decisions and work as a team, as well as improve social intelligence by sharing with other people with the same ultimate goal
  • Learn about responsibilities with the natural environment and become aware of it
  • Promote the cultivation of native plants
  • Stimulate having healthy lifestyle habits, through producing our own food
  • Apply in practice, the information obtained in the theory that was read in the books.
  • Do an activity where the family is involved.

How are they done?

Before choosing the type of School Garden to be carried out, you have to be clear about what objectives you want to achieve and how you want it to be. This allows you to select between the different types that are known of How to develop a School Garden and choose the one that best responds to your objectives and resources that you have within the school institution.

The pot as a garden

The planting place of the plants of the School Garden, will be made inside the pots or also in planters, as well as a combination of the same. Inside these containers and pots or planters, a bed of stones is first placed, which can be from construction or from the river. It is filled with the substrate or soil mixed with organic fertilizer and the seeds of the chosen crop are sown. Depending on the selected plants and the information obtained in the texts, a work plan and distribution of activities to be carried out in the School Garden is prepared together with the teacher.

SCHOLAR ORCHARD

Direct above ground garden

Here the traditional method of growing in a garden is used. It is made directly on the ground, and is suitable for those educational institutions that have patios with dirt floors. In this type of School Garden, the methods used in traditional agriculture work. Because it is made directly on the ground, it must be kept in mind that the soil is suitable for sowing.

On Cultivation Table

This type of School Garden is appropriate to carry out in schools, because it is carried out on tables where they are cultivated and it is more comfortable to work with. These cultivation tables can be built of wood or wood and at a comfortable height for both students and teachers. Depending on the crops that are planted, particular care will be carried out so that the plants grow without problems.

Organic gardens and their reuse

In this type of School Garden, agroecological methods such as hydroponic cultivation are used. Within the hydroponic method are vertical gardens, which are very good to build in small spaces or with little direct light, as in cities. These gardens can be built on reused containers such as soda bottles, tire interiors, and others.

Operation of the School Garden

The operational part of the School Gardens are many. From an academic point of view, it can be used to learn different subjects, in addition to topics related to biology and earth or nature science. It serves to apply subjects of chemistry, physics, mathematics, drawing or ethics. Among the activities that can be carried out with the students will depend on the growth stages of the plants.

Planting

It is convenient that the students begin to build the School Garden from scratch. As from the moment of collecting the seeds, this activity can vary depending on where you live. For example, in cities it is easier to obtain seeds at home from gardens, from grains that are eaten, for example. Those who live in rural areas or near these can be collected directly from the plants, here you have to see if the seed is ripe and, incidentally, see how the adult plant is.

When taking the seeds to the School Garden, either by the traditional or hydroponic method, the seeds must have certain conditions for their germination. They learn to carry out a follow-up such as: the harvest date, sown seeds, germinated seeds, irrigation days, planting day and others, this allows them to be disciplined, make observations, and have patience.

Cuttings or stakes

Reproducing the plants of the School Garden by the method of stakes or cuttings, it will help them to apply a propagation method widely used in nurseries, likewise, work teams can be divided and one group reproduces plants from seeds and others from cuttings and stakes. Reproduction by stakes or cuttings allows plants to multiply faster. This consists of using a part of a stem, branch or shoot, cutting it and then planting it on a new substrate with the object that grows properly.

Nutrients

It is important to remember that plants sown from seeds or cuttings are living beings, therefore they require food to live. Part of the information that has to be reviewed is the living conditions of the planted plants to try to adapt their planting location to these requirements and, above all, to provide their nutrients. This will help to observe what the nutritional requirements of the plant are and at what time and how to apply them. If the crop is hydroponic, you can observe the development of the roots and their health.

Prune and harvest

The pruning that will be done in the School Gardens, will be the dry leaves or eaten by some animal, eliminate unwanted plants or weeds, which had not been planted. When the fruits are ready to harvest, this task will begin. These activities are very enriching for children and young people. Being able to see how the plants they planted fulfilled their cycle and obtain their fruits, in a teaching of perseverance, commitment and achievement.

Cooking courses

Once the School Garden has been harvested, the collected plants and fruits can be taken home to enjoy and teach the family how to grow them and also make meals together with their parents. You can also take cooking courses at the school, to learn how to eat healthy dishes, such as preparing salads, juices, infusions of aromatic herbs, creams and other dishes that together you will be able to create.

Learning from School Gardens

If a School Garden project is carried out systematically, it will be possible to observe the benefits of Making a School Garden, and analyze with the students both in the practical site of the activity and in the classroom, and its relationship with other subjects. . This will allow students to learn:

  • Eat healthier
  • Become aware of the environment where we all live and are part of
  • Learn to carry out an activity on sustainability, such as sustainable agriculture for example, when they apply the hydroponic method and reuse materials.
  • Learn to respect the environment, in different aspects through the cultivation of plants

From the educational point of view:

  • Learn to work as a team, applying collaborative learning and social intelligence
  • Development of different emotional intelligences, helps to awaken curiosity and creativity
  • Helps develop patience and commitment, as well as creating empathy between living things, such as students and plants

His teaching to eat healthy

It is a good educational tool to teach children to eat healthy, because it encourages them to grow their own food, in this way they become familiar with plants and by knowing a little more about them they learn to value them. That is to say, that the School Gardens is an educational method that allows to promote a balanced diet and consume more vegetables and fruits.

learn by practicing

The School Gardens are a way to complement the teaching of subjects such as biology, natural sciences and others, in practice. For example, it allows to differentiate the shapes of vegetables, fruits and legumes (grains). Why water, light and nutrients are important for plants and how they affect their growth. Differentiate propagation by seed and propagation by cuttings or cuttings, to begin with.

motor skills

The use of hands when working in agriculture helps to remove the fear that an animal will come out, you learn to use tools such as shovels, rakes, watering cans and secure the plants with stakes so that they develop well. This allows children to work on fine motor skills while working in the Garden.

They promote teamwork

Just as motor skills are put to work, other activities must also be used. Among these, they have to choose the plants to plant, organize the activities and tasks to carry out the project and decide to carry it out on the farm. To get everything done right, you have to work as a team. That is, learning to negotiate and abide by the guidelines and directives indicated by the teaching staff, as well as working at the same time in a coordinated manner with the rest of the students and also being autonomous at times.

Different ages

School Gardens is an activity where people of different ages can interact, allowing them to work together on fairly easy tasks and others that are a little more complex. It allows learning to be responsible and commit from a young age and apply them and even review their willingness to apply them in adulthood. It is an activity that can be carried out with pre-school children, as well as primary school children together with adults, as long as the capacities of each of the participants are respected.

Learn math

Knowledge of different subjects such as mathematics, languages, geometry can be applied. For example learning shapes and colors, learning the names of vegetables in other languages. With more advanced students, knowledge of economics can be applied, for example, calculate the cost of production, among others.

Effort and reward values

If you have grown plants in advance, you will know how satisfying it is to see a cultivated plant grow from a young age and see it flourish. This can happen in school garden projects, since it is a project that produces a lot of satisfaction. At the same time, it teaches children to strive for the projects they want to achieve and the rewards that are obtained when they achieve it. For example, the joy of eating a self-grown tomato.

Enjoy nature

Most people spend a lot of time at home or in the office and doing little physical activity, and this happens at any age. This is why carrying out a School Garden is an option to get a bit of sun, be in contact with a bit of air and carry out some field activities. In turn, it is a great opportunity to learn playing outdoors and with the benefits that all the activity implies.

reuse and recycling

In the School Garden project, you can take advantage of used containers, furniture that was going to be discarded, tires and other items to reuse such as pots, work tables, take advantage of the wood of an old piece of furniture and build a planter, among others. One of the activities can be to make organic fertilizer and take advantage, if it is the case, of the pruning of the grass or lawn and fallen leaves for its elaboration.

family activity

In the School Garden project, the institution's teaching staff can invite people from the family group of the school's children. If any of the representatives master gardening, they can help give talks to teachers and children and even, if possible, participate more actively in the School Garden. Likewise, non-experts can also participate and learn together with their children.

I invite you to continue knowing the wonderful nature and how to take care of it, reading the following posts:


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