• Recipe for Garden Learning by Angela Buffington

  Monday, April 30, 2012 | Filed under Environmental Stewardship , Science , Smart Potatoes

   

  Fitzgerald Elementary School students have found a recipe to spark learning!  

  Ingredients:

  1 heaping helping of soil       A pinch of seeds      Rays of warm sun

  Rain shower(s)                    Flowers                 Butterflies

   

  Directions:

  Scoop up a heaping helping of soil, stir in a pinch of seeds, add a gentle rain shower, and bake in the rays of a warm spring sun until flowers bloom. Sprinkle with butterflies before serving. Serve generously to children with a side of humor and patience. Handle with care, a learning spark will yield enough teachable moments for everyone!

  

  Second graders at Fitzgerald Elementary School discovered ...

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• The Potato Leaf Mystery by Angela Buffington

  Tuesday, April 17, 2012 | Filed under Student Behavior , Educators , Science , Smart Potatoes

  Our guest blogger, Angela Buffington, had the chance to spend part of a cloudy April morning with Ms. Porter's second graders at Fitzgerald Elementary School's learning garden in Arlington: 

   

   

  Holes in the potato plant leaves

  We observed potato plants and pieced together clues to solve a mystery. First, all the students' eyes surveyed the potato plants, quick to notice some stems were missing leaves! Students began to chatter as they noticed leaves with ragged edged holes. Several had figured out what must have happened and were eager to share. Hands shot up, and students exclaimed, "The leaves were ...

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• We Are Moving To New Digs

  Monday, April 16, 2012 | Filed under Community , Firestation Stories , REAL Supporters

  If you haven’t already heard it through the grapevine, a new “For Lease” sign at Old Firestation #5 has prompted us to make the news more official. In a few months, we are moving from one unique space which we have grown to love to another!

   

  This summer REAL School Gardens will re-locate to 1700 University Drive in Fort Worth, where we are looking forward to new offices and teacher training facilities provided to us by our friends at Botanical Research Institute of Texas.  We are excited that we will have space in the same building as the ...

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• Farm-to-Table: Don't Stop at Home, Bring It to School!

  Thursday, April 12, 2012 | Filed under Environmental Stewardship , Health and Nutrition , Instructional Aids

  Most of us have caught wind of the "farm-to-table" concept.  Farmer's markets are abuzz with locavores, and many restaurants are now noting the noble, local origins of their ingredients with detailed menu descriptions.

  

  Students at Harry C. Withers E.S. hold a farmer's market on campus with produce from the garden and the Dallas Farmer's Market.

  In North Texas, you can take advantage of farm-to-table opportunities by checking out any number of local markets like Cowtown Market, Dallas Farmer's Market, or White Rock Local Market and by visiting restaurants that source local food like Smoke, Blue Mesa ...

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• Literature Through A Different Lens by Amanda Stone Norton of BRIT

  Tuesday, April 10, 2012 | Filed under Environmental Stewardship , Educators , Community , Instructional Aids , Smart Potatoes

     "Ideas are not fixed and immutable elements of thought but are formed and re-formed through experiences...No two thoughts are ever the same, since experience always intervenes."

                                                                    -  D.A. Kolb

   

   

   

  At a recent BRIT Book Study an elementary school educator asked, "how do we talk to our students about the need for cradle to cradle products when their families can barely afford to purchase cradle to grave products? How do we talk about sustainable choices like this without making them feel hopeless?" I consider myself to be an avid and critical reader; however, I probably wouldn't ...

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• It Takes a Village to Build a REAL School Garden

  Thursday, April 05, 2012 | Filed under School Garden Installation , School Garden Design , Community , Smart Potatoes

  Each time we approach building a new school garden, one of the first things you will notice is that we need a village to build a great learning garden. We have lots of support from our community to help make a school garden possible and who are critical to our mission of growing successful students in our learning gardens. One of our great community partners is The Brickman Group, a leader in the commercial landscape industry with over 160 branches serving 29 states. A great crew from Brickman, led by Todd Hopkins, recently donated two days of their time ...

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• Wet and Wild Water Education in Texas

  Tuesday, April 03, 2012 | Filed under Environmental Stewardship , School Garden Installation , School Garden Design , Science

  REAL School Gardens wishes to recognize Texas Agrilife Extension Services as one of our partners in educating the public regarding Texas water resources. Texas Agrilife has partnered with us in bringing techniques for water conservation to the public schools in which we build learning gardens for inquiry-driven, sensory-based learning.

  

   With the increased population in Texas, the demand for water has soared and we need to be reminded to respect the available water captured underground and in lakes and utilize it in a practical and useful way.

   

   A special thank you goes to Dotty Woodson and Jeff Raska of Texas ...

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