Every day, all year long!
All students can come every single day at lunch recess for guided activities or free exploration. Many students spend every single recess in the garden, while others join when they feel like spending time in a natural space. TK and Kindergarten students can come at morning recess, too!
Each 1-6 grade class also has biweekly, 25-minute garden sessions with Ms. Claire during the growing season.
Teachers and staff can also use the gardens in the afternoons for weekly or special occasion activities, such as yoga, reading and journaling, science, drama, and more.
Watering Teamwork, cooperation, caring for different zones and habitats, using resources carefully
Science Hands-on garden science investigations, experiments, skills and critical thinking
Art & Nature Journals Biology, ecology, critical thinking, language arts, visual arts
Planting seeds Math, measuring hands-on gardening skills
Special projects Kids have great ideas! We work together to plan, prototype, and implement new garden features
Kids can join the scheduled activity or explore and play on their own. We have a garden library, several habitats, activity tables, active and quiet zones, and much more!
So kids can access nature every single day, as often as they want.
At recess, students interact with students from different classes and grades, developing cooperation and social skills
Lets kids continue the activities we start during class visits
Lets Ms. Claire provide more individual and small group support and check-ins
Did you know? At many schools, students can only visit their garden 6-12 times a year, and only if their teachers choose to take their class out. At Fairmont, kids can come to the garden as often as they want.
Walk, don’t run
Ask before you pick plants
Ask before you eat anything
Don't dig holes*
Don't touch garden animals (except roly-polies, worms, and slugs)
And also...
Don’t stand on the tables (or benches or stumps or the wall)
Don’t throw things or hurt people or bugs
Don’t turn on the hose – ask a grownup
Don’t put fingers (or food or sticks) in the gopher holes
Never touch mushrooms in the garden. Get Ms. Claire or another grownup.
*I know, kids love to dig. Me too! But if you dig in a planting bed, you might dig up seeds we just planted. And we don't dig in the ground because people can trip, and because there's a lot of broken glass in some of the ground (it used to be a public park, and was next to a railway before that.)