Edible Gardens Overview

Grade-by-grade tours, tastings and lessons with curricular-specific plantings at each campus, with particular attention to growing foods for the Garden State on Your Plate tastings calendar. All gardens work together, since each is in a microclimate of its own, and with its own student community, its own Edible Gardens Educator/Steward, and its own parent volunteers.

Elementary School Garden Education Programs

Over the last decade, the elementary school gardens in Princeton Public Schools have grown and blossomed into fully integrated garden education programs. The 2013-2014 school year is the second year in which each school has had a dedicated garden expert helping lead the program and each child in each school will have sustained garden experiences over the course of the school year. The more the gardens are used, the more they demonstrate their phenomenal educational richness.

Our students:

• learn hands-on lessons directly linked to the K-5 core curriculum;

• stretch their minds and bodies while digging deep into enrichment topics in botany, horticulture and ecology;

• problem-solve using skills they are learning in subjects such as math, language arts, and Spanish;

• become inspired and empowered to make healthy and sustainable choices about nutrition and safeguarding the environment;

• build self-confidence, a sense of ownership in their schools, and a sense of connection to and purpose in their communities.

Our teachers:

• have access to an abundance of teaching opportunities right outside their classrooms;

• see immediate and sustained results and benefits for students of all learning styles;

• are winning acclaim in the community for their development of innovative garden-based programs.

Our community:

• enthusiastically supports the garden programs with both copious volunteer time and funding.