Eaton Park’s Teaching Garden

Eaton Park Elementary School has made good use of their resources to introduce a “teaching garden” for their students to take a more hands-on approach to science, as well as introduce more real life healthy eating habits.

It’s an exciting time for the school, says principal Wendy Stoute. “A lot of the excitement comes from seeing the kids so excited,” she said. Kalya Lucas, the teacher who has been spearheading the project, adds that the students were excited to go to school last Friday morning in order to unveil the new garden.

“It’s been a process,” Stoute explained. “Chevron has funded some of the garden. The American Heart Association and Activate 4 Kids collaborated, too.”

Getting the project going was a long process, but the results are worth it. “The students are going to use it and they’re ready,” Stoute explained. “They’re going to use it in science in their plants unit, most definitely, but also incorporate healthy eating and healthy lifestyles.”

The kids planted the items in the garden, and they will maintain it, measure rainfall, soil quality, and other aspects of growing and maintaining a garden.

“When I get to see the students excited, it excites me,” Stoute added.

Lucas has been ready for a while, and the set-up was the easy part. “In science, we’re going to start with charting the growth of the plants in the garden,” Lucas said. “We’ll determine the impact of weather on them. We’ll measure rainfall with a weather station out here, too.”

On the front end, the school didn’t have to do much, but the back end, the teaching and learning, that’s all Lucas and Eaton Park. “It’s amazing,” she said. “I love it.”