OUR GARDENS
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The gardens are an important part of our curriculum. Grade-specific gardens and projects bring together the knowledge and skills students have acquired. Each grade’s project is designed to encourage students to develop a sense of ownership and responsibility for their learning, with the aim of creating lifelong learners and stewards of the environment.
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Harvest from the Second Grade Three Sisters Garden
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Kindergarten – Plant and maintain raised beds with seasonal fruits and veggies
Fruit/Veggie Gardens: Planting and caring for their gardens provides our Kindergartners a link to the science learning standards relating to patterns and cycles, basic needs and life processes of plants as well as characteristics of matter such as color, shape and texture.
First Grade – Plant and maintain organic vegetable gardens
Vegetable Gardens: Planning, planting, and cultivating organic gardens with seasonal vegetables allows the first graders to explore nutrition, flavors, a wide variety of plant types - including broccoli, tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs, and strawberries. They also learn and implement methods of successful gardening, including soil science and water conservation and experience how these activities help their watershed.
Second Grade - Plant and maintain the History/Bayscape Gardens
History/Bayscape Garden: The three terraces of the PHSSA History/Bayscape Garden allow our second graders to fully live out a little of what they learn about Native and Colonial peoples and cultures. Terrace 1 is a Three Sisters Garden, a Native American intercropping system which grows corn, beans, and squash crops simultaneously in the same growing area that is typically a rounded mound of soil, often called a hill; we've just completed our second successful Three Sisters harvest with all of second grade enjoying Three Sisters stew. Terrace 2 plants were chosen to coincide with student research on plants important Native Americans, specifically Eastern Woodlands tribes, and early European colonists and all had early American medicinal uses and serve as food sources for native butterflies and other insects and thus for native birds and other wildlife . The students worked with a volunteer Master Naturalist to germinate and propagate these herbaceous plants maintain the plantings. Terrace 3 currently contains small native trees and shrubs, which like the plants in Terrace 2, promote healthy native wildlife and support their watershed.
Third Grade – Plant and maintain the PHSSA Butterfly Garden (soon to be certified by Monarch Watch)
Butterfly Garden: Through the planning and placement of native plants that attract and sustain local butterfly and moth species, our third graders build a true appreciation for the beauty of the nature of Richmond and Virginia. This is a highly visible project for the community and brings life and color to the school. The integration of art into this garden, through the design and creation of our gorgeous butterfly mosaic that hovers above the plants, brings this garden full circle in PHSSA's integrated curriculum.
Fruit/Veggie Gardens: Planting and caring for their gardens provides our Kindergartners a link to the science learning standards relating to patterns and cycles, basic needs and life processes of plants as well as characteristics of matter such as color, shape and texture.
First Grade – Plant and maintain organic vegetable gardens
Vegetable Gardens: Planning, planting, and cultivating organic gardens with seasonal vegetables allows the first graders to explore nutrition, flavors, a wide variety of plant types - including broccoli, tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs, and strawberries. They also learn and implement methods of successful gardening, including soil science and water conservation and experience how these activities help their watershed.
Second Grade - Plant and maintain the History/Bayscape Gardens
History/Bayscape Garden: The three terraces of the PHSSA History/Bayscape Garden allow our second graders to fully live out a little of what they learn about Native and Colonial peoples and cultures. Terrace 1 is a Three Sisters Garden, a Native American intercropping system which grows corn, beans, and squash crops simultaneously in the same growing area that is typically a rounded mound of soil, often called a hill; we've just completed our second successful Three Sisters harvest with all of second grade enjoying Three Sisters stew. Terrace 2 plants were chosen to coincide with student research on plants important Native Americans, specifically Eastern Woodlands tribes, and early European colonists and all had early American medicinal uses and serve as food sources for native butterflies and other insects and thus for native birds and other wildlife . The students worked with a volunteer Master Naturalist to germinate and propagate these herbaceous plants maintain the plantings. Terrace 3 currently contains small native trees and shrubs, which like the plants in Terrace 2, promote healthy native wildlife and support their watershed.
Third Grade – Plant and maintain the PHSSA Butterfly Garden (soon to be certified by Monarch Watch)
Butterfly Garden: Through the planning and placement of native plants that attract and sustain local butterfly and moth species, our third graders build a true appreciation for the beauty of the nature of Richmond and Virginia. This is a highly visible project for the community and brings life and color to the school. The integration of art into this garden, through the design and creation of our gorgeous butterfly mosaic that hovers above the plants, brings this garden full circle in PHSSA's integrated curriculum.