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APRIL

School Gardens | Earth Day

School Gardens

Celebrate the food that comes from your community and Oakland! OUSD Garden Education's goal is to establish and maintain a garden in every school. Help maintain your school garden, grow and harvest produce, and learn to use locally grown food in new recipes. 

Communications

• Bulletin Board
  • Create a “rainbow" with print- or cut-outs of fruits and vegetables.
  • Have photos of students planting and harvesting in the school garden.
  • Include pictures of produce markets (1|2|3)
• School Announcements
  • “Spend some quality time in our school's beautiful garden and check out what we're growing!"
  • “Go with your family to check out the many Farmers' Markets in Oakland that are open year-round.Try the samples, especially if they are something new. If you don’t know what something is, ask the growers how it tastes and how they like to prepare it. You may just find a new favorite food!"

Learning for Students

• UC Calfresh UC Davis TWIGS Gardening Curriculum

Activities

•  Reference OUSD Garden Toolkit (Coming soon!)

Resources to Share

• Contact your school's FoodCorps member or Garden Steward to coordinate garden and nutrition education lessons.
• Contact TSA/FoodCorps Site Supervisor Kat Romo (Kat.Romo@ousd.org) for questions and more information about OUSD Garden Education.
• List of Oakland's Farmers' Markets & school produce markets
• CUESA charts of Bay Area seasonal fruits and vegetables
• Five reasons to buy local
• OUSD Graden Maintenance Plan for people maintaining school gardens

Earth Day

How can your school take care of the wellness of the environment as well as the people? 

Communications

• School Announcements
  • “Earth Day is April 22nd. Let's celebrate by appreciating, respecting, and protecting our environment."
  • “Here are a few simple ways for you to celebrate Earth Day: walk or ride your bike to school; drink water from your refillable water bottle; bring reusable bags to the store; volunteer to clean up your local beach or neighborhood park; plant a tree; and enjoy nature! Invite your friends and family to go on a hike at Redwood Regional Park!"
• Flyer/Poster
  • Infographic on reducing food waste

Learning for Students

•  Earth Day Curriculum Resources for Grades K-5
•  Earth Day Curriculum Resources for Grades 6-8
•  Earth Day Curriculum Resources for Grades 9-12

Activities

• Have students write pledges of small actions they can take to help the earth:
  • Recycle papers, plastics, glass, aluminum.
  • Don’t litter: make sure your trash goes into a trash can.
  • Turn off the water while you brush your teeth.
  • Buy products made from recycled materials or post-consumer waste.
  • Use reusable items instead of single-use/disposable ones.
    • Reusable utensils instead of single-use plastic forks/knives/spoons.
    • Glass or plastic cups instead of single-use paper cups.
• Take students on a neighborhood or campus clean up and have them pick up any litter they see. Once back in your classroom, facilitate a discussion about the amount of trash collected, the type of trash collected and what students can do to help reduce litter and protect the environment.
• Organize a clean-up at Oakland's shoreline lakes, creeks, and parks.
• Plant a tree or other plant with your class in your school garden. If your school doesn’t have a garden, make an Earth Day mural of a tree with your students’ handprints as the leaves. Students can write pledges on the mural, such as “I will turn off the lights when I leave the room,” or “I will always recycle,” etc.