DC Urban Gardeners

Schoolyard Greening Workshop March 31, April 4

Get Out and Garden! 
"Cultivating Readers through Gardening", a 2-Day Workshop

WHEN:

• Tuesday, March 31st from 4:30-7:30pm at Bancroft ES
• Saturday, April 4th from 9-3pm at the Washington Youth Garden

Workshop includes:

• How to start a schoolyard garden and effectively work with students outdoors.
• Experiential, hands-on workday to learn how to grow plants from seeds, plant and maintain a garden with students, composting, and more.
• Information about Concept Oriented Reading Instruction (CORI). Learn how use reading engagement strategies with garden-based lessons in your curriculum.
• An introduction to local resources available to help with schoolyard projects.

The workshop is open to all - participating DCPS teachers will qualify for 9 recertification hours (pending application approval).

FEE: $25 to cover the cost of materials and light meals.

Registration deadline is March 20.  The registration form can also be downloaded from our website http://www.dcschoolyardgreening.org.

DC Schoolyard Greening is a program of the DC Environmental Education
Consortium.

For more information contact Grace Manubay 202-236-5856, gmanubay@gmail.com

Photo:  painting raised planters at Studio School.  Posted by Susan Harris

High School Winners of School Garden Photo Contest

DC Schoolyard Greening has just completed the Second Annual School Garden Photo Contest, and thanks its panel of judges: Kathy Jentz, editor of Washington Gardener Magazine, professional photographers Stephen Brown and Steve O'Toole, bloggers Ed Bruske and Christa Carnignan, and gardening coach Susan Harris.  Congratulations to all the winners, starting here with the high school level.  (Scroll down for more age groups.)

High School Winners, beginning with the top photo, are:  Natalia Brito of School Without Walls (1st); Haley Miles -of School Without Walls (2nd); Daniel George of St. Coletta's (3rd); Chiquita Robertson of St. Coletta's (1st Runner-up); and Nathan Na of St. John's College High School (2nd Runner-up).

Middle School Winners of School Garden Photo Contest

DC Schoolyard Greening has just completed its Second Annual School Garden Photo Contest and thanks its panel of judges:  Kathy Jentz, editor of Washington Gardener Magazine, professional photographers Stephen Brown and Steve O'Toole, bloggers Ed Bruske and Christa Carignan, and gardening coach Susan Harris.  Congratulations, middle school winners!  (Scroll up and down for more age groups.)

Middle School Winners are, from top:  Melissa Wood of Horace Mann (1st and winner of Grand Prize);  Jordan Lee of Horace Mann (2nd);  and Julia Hiemstra and Emma Vicini of Horace Mann sharing 3rd place.

Upper Elemenary School Garden Photo Winners

DC Schoolyard Greening has just completed its Second Annual School Garden Photo Contest and thanks its panel of judges:  Kathy Jentz, editor of Washington Gardener Magazine, professional photographers Stephen Brown and Steve O'Toole, bloggers Ed Bruske and Christa Carignan, and gardening coach Susan Harris.  Congratulations, upper elementary school winners!  (Scroll down for more age groups.)

Upper Elementary School Winners are, beginning with the top photo: Jieun Suh of Horace Mann (1st); William Ross of Horace Mann (2nd); Tim Scherer of Horace Mann (3rd).

Lower Elementary School Winners of School Garden Photo Contest

DC Schoolyard Greening has just completed its Second Annual School Garden Photo Contest and thanks its panel of judges:  Kathy Jentz, editor of Washington Gardener Magazine, professional photographers Stephen Brown and Steve O'Toole, bloggers Ed Bruske and Christa Carignan, and gardening coach Susan Harris.  Congratulations, lower elementary winners!  (Scroll up for more age groups.)

Lower Elementary Winners are, beginning with the top photo:  Marco Shaik of Horace Mann School (1st);  Chelsea Choice of Latin American Montessori Binlingual (2nd); and Christina Range of Horace Mann (3rd).

D.C. School Garden Week: Blast Off

The mayor, the schools chancellor, the head of the city's department of the environment--even WRC-TV's political reporter, Tom Sherwood--anybody who's anybody it seems was at yesterday's kickoff to the first-ever D.C. School Garden Week.

Gardens are important not only to teach kids that there's a big wide world of nature outside the concrete confines of our city but to introduce children to the why's and wherefore's of growing things, even food and the good nutrition that comes from fresh, locally grown produce.

It's a bit of a struggle establishing gardens in the schools here in the District of Columbia. That's where the D.C. Schoolyard Greening organization comes in. And this year, taking a cue from California, where hefty amounts of funding are devoted to school gardens, we decided to designate one week in the year to promote the school gardening effort.

After months of planning and organizing, School Garden Week is here. D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty issued a proclamation, we held a garden photo contest and everything seemed to fall into place. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee, D.C. Department of the Environment Director Howard S. Hawkins, Ward 4 D.C. Council Member Muriel Bowser--they all stayed to help hand out awards to the photo contest winners gathered at LaSalle Elementary School.

We had more than 100 entries from nine different schools. My rough estimate is that more than half the winners showed up yesterday to collect their prizes, including Grand Prize winner Nell Koring, an 11th-grader from Wilson Sernior High shown here with Chancellor Rhee and Direcor Hawkins.

Tonight, we hold a panel discussion on how to create a school garden and work it into the curriculum. I'll be bringing the food...

--Posted by Ed Bruske

School Projects Worthy of Support

This is SO cool.  There's something new on the Internet called Donors Choose, in which bloggers pick worthy school projects to solicit funds for through their blogs.  And searching for school garden projects, I stumbled upon a D.C. photographer who selected a terrific group of projects from the applications submitted by area teachers.  His selections are all here and worth a look whether you're in a philanthropic mood or not.  The campaign is scheduled to run through October 31.

Now if by any chance these projects become fully funded, GardenRant is also soliciting donations for school gardens but none are in DC (sorry - I wasn't in charge of picking!).  I donated to a worm composting project in Chicago because the teacher's application was awesome AND because it reminded me of a similar project at D.C.'s Studio Charter School.  What kids can resist worms?

Posted by Susan Harris

D.C. School Garden Week Photo Contest: The Winners

Results are in from the first D.C. School Garden Week photo contest and we are happy to announce the winners here. More than 100 photos were submitted from nine different schools. Winners were chosen by a panel of four distinguished judges:

Christa Carignan, Washington-area photographer, gardener and author of the Calendula & Concrete blog.

Mei Mei Chang, photographer and artist/teacher at Children's Studio School.

Susan Harris, professional garden coach, co-author of the Garden Rant blog, and co-founder of D.C. Urban Gardeners.

Kathy Jentz, publisher of Washington Gardener magazine.

Grand Prize Winner: "Purple Flowers on Belt Street," by Nell Koring 11th grade, Wilson Senior High School.