Get Your Garden On With Fit to Learn!

February 02, 2016 | Written By: Healthy Schools Campaign

Although here in Chicago, it’s still too early in the season to get your hands dirty and plant a school garden, that doesn’t mean it’s too early to start thinking about it.

Through our Fit to Learn program, we are offering several great events over the next few weeks to help you plan for a great school garden this year.

Fit to Learn is an innovative professional development program for Chicago educators. It provides practical methods for making health and wellness a regular part of the school experience while meeting academic standards in math, reading, science, social studies, art, music and more. Just as important, Fit to Learn is about having fun and developing lifelong skills.

On March 9, join us for The ABCs of School Gardens. This short introductory webinar will cover how garden-based learning positively impacts student learning, how to get started and explore ways school gardens offer hands-on, experiential learning opportunities in a wide array of disciplines and promote student health and provide Chicago-based examples of school garden success.

On March 23, join us for our School Gardens 101 booster, which will be held at a school in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) district. This introductory garden session will lay the groundwork and identify resources for getting your school garden up and running in the spring and keep it running throughout the year. This session features Drew Thomas, the School Garden Coordinator at CPS.

And for teachers hoping to incorporate fresh produce from their school gardens—or from elsewhere—into lesson plans, we’re hosting a booster on Nutrition Education in the Classroom on Feb. 17. Using the Organwise Guys method for creative introduction to health, this session will present strategies for making nutrition education fun and active. Plus, Common Threads will lead participants in a taste test of fresh fruits and veggies! This session will be held at Ruiz Elementary School located at 2410 South Leavitt Street in Chicago.