Community Gathering
The school believes it is important to demonstrate a strong
community that cares for and cultivate strong life-long learners. In particular, this community gathering will
focus on gaining awareness for how the plants that we grow in our community can
provide help create a healthy diet for our community. In addition to help bring the second and
third grade curriculum to life, these vegetables can be washed, prepared and
transferred to the salad bar at our school cafeteria. The purpose of this festival is to cultivate
the idea in our student that the food we grow in our garden ends up in our
school’s lunch table.
DAC Supervision and Execution
For the planning of this event, I
would ask the DAC (District Accountability Committee), who is the school’s
parent group that plans fundraisers and other events, to be in charge of
planning and supervising this event.
This parent group holds monthly meetings with the administrative team
and teacher leaders. At a minimum of two
months prior to the Fall Harvest Party, I would explain the purpose of
gathering the community together and ask this groups to plan and host this
event. I think this event is important
for the DAC for many reasons. First off,
it gives our students and parent population awareness around who is on the DAC
and what they do. This event can be
there forum. It is also a great place to
recruit new members or family members that want to volunteer and get involved
in the school. Lastly, this is a place
to raise some funds for student government to complete some service learning
opportunities throughout the year. The
DAC will be put in communication with the gardening committee to organize and
plan the event further. The second and
third grade classrooms take care of and manage the garden and they currently
work with the garden committee to grown vegetables and keep the space thriving
and healthy. The garden committee will
help families harvest vegetables from the garden and make healthy dishes for
the community to sample at the party.
Gardening Committee
This is a group of second and
third grade teachers, parents and community volunteers whose mission it is to
connect the second and third grade curriculum of the study of botany and plants
into an authentic connection with the food they eat. This year’s harvest party will attempt to
raise money and awareness to keep our schools community garden surviving and
thriving. The main objective of the group
is to organize a shared watering schedule over the summer months when school is
not in session. The hope for fall party
is to procure a few hundred dollars for plant starters, seeds, and fresh
topsoil for the garden.
Operational Factors
The garden committee and DAC
should plan to have at least 8 tables for stations to be set up outside near
the playground and field by the school.
If the weather is below twenty degrees or otherwise inclement we will
have the tables set up in the gym and we would cancel the 5k and only hold the
1 mile and 100 yard dash in the gym along with tug of war. We will need the support of the entire
administration team, DAC, the Garden Committee, and the Elementary School
Teachers to stay until 7:00 pm. Pizza
will be ordered for everyone who is helping to set up, break down and
facilitate the event.
Activities
The garden committee will plan and
organize six of the ten stations at this event.
They will be seasonal vegetables that are cooked or prepared into
healthy recipes for tasting stations.
The garden committee will run the following tasting stations:
1. Multi-Color Corn Salsa (green
peppers, jalapenos, onions, salt, cilantro) with yellow corn chips.
2. Lavender Infused Lemonade
3. Pumpkin soup
4. Spaghetti Squash Pasta (with butter
and parmesan)
5. Simple Garden Salad (greens, green
beans, cherry tomatoes, pumpkin seeds)
6. Edible Flowers tasting (pansies from
the garden will be lightly dressed with salad dressing)
There will be a few fitness events that will also take place
at the fall festival. Most notably a 5k
run walk even to raise money for the garden.
In addition there will be these fitness activities:
1. 5K Run/Walk Family Event
2. 1 Mile Run/Walk Family Event
3. 100 yard field dash
4. Tug of War Students versus Adults
Finally,
there will be a literacy station that teachers will occupy with examples of
grade appropriate books, oral reading fluency practice sheets, sight word flash
cards, and comprehension strategies. On member of the administrative team will
be at this booth at all times to help support teachers. There will also be a leaf rubbing station
with crayons, white paper and leaves collected by students.
1. Literacy Station
2. Leaf Rubbing Crafts
No comments:
Post a Comment