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The Greater Franklin Food Council is excited to present the Growing Gardeners School Garden Curriculum! This comprehensive, standards-aligned, K-8 curriculum, co-authored by four educators who have a passion for all things school gardens is available for purchase.
Our website has a free preview to give interested educators an opportunity to get a sense of the breadth and depth of this resource. Included is the Table of Contents, all of the documents that make up the Preface, and one sample lesson of the twenty in total. The lesson, like all of the others, is broken into three separate sections for different developmental age groups: K-2, 3-5, and 6-8.
Reach out to Laura Hoeft, Greater Franklin Food Council School Garden Coach, with questions at fcschoolgardencoach@gmail.com.
School Gardens
The school garden program was launched in 2020. Originally supporting four schools in Franklin County, the program has expanded to now serve eight schools and over 950 students, ranging from grades PK-8. These schools are: Cascade Brook, Mallett and Mt Blue Middle Schools in RSU 9, Day Mountain Middle School, Kingfield Elementary, and Phillips Elementary Schools in MSAD 58, the Rangeley Lakes Regional School and the Stratton School.
The school garden coach delivers hands-on, interactive lessons in the garden on a regular basis in the fall and spring months, as well as a few lessons in classrooms throughout the winter. During the growing season, these standards aligned lessons focus on teaching students how to grow, care for, harvest, and even cook with food from the garden in an effort to promote a self-sustaining, healthy lifestyle! The winter lessons are focused on food and nutrition and include hands-on activities as well.
This council is hopeful to continue to expand the school garden program to more schools and currently has capacity to do so. If you are affiliated with a school in Franklin County and are interested in learning more, please reach out to the school garden coach, Laura Hoeft, at fcschoolgardencoach@gmail.com.
