I had the wonderful opportunity to be placed at the UBC Orchard Garden for my community field experience from June 6-24, 2016. We explored various ways to balance indoor and outdoor education while learning more about how to engage with the curriculum in garden-based, place-based learning. We soon realized how easy it is for educators to make cross-curricular lessons in the garden supporting experiential learning! With a little bit of time, effort, and meaningful connections made with the community, a school garden can easily be a possibility! I thought I would share some of my reflections during my CFE experience.

Friday, June 10, 2016

Today was a wonderful day to be back in the classroom setting as we balance both indoor and outdoor learning! We started the day with a harvesting activity where we identified the names of plants and the part of the plant that we eat (roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds) which proved to be more challenging than we thought.

Keeping in mind that “A Teacher’s Guide to Teaching in the School Garden” is intended for high-school classes, we went around the table as everyone contributed different ideas for incorporating lessons in their teaching areas. We realized that this resource served for great discussion around how we can take lessons from the booklet, adapt it for different learning levels and different age groups, and how we can use the information across the curriculum.

Finally we concluded our discussion by dividing into our different presentation groups as we worked on our plans for the Summer Solstice and Orchard Garden workshops! As we brainstormed in teams, the excitement grew as we realized the dates are fast approaching! We winded down the session by deciding on which plants we want to grow in the flower beds at the Orchard Garden. It is an enriching experience to be able to contribute to the garden. We feel this is relatable to our students and their experiences with contributing to their own school gardens.

Friday, June 17, 2016

Hyperboloids and Dream Scrolls

Today we continued working on the hyperboloid gate and tried many different ideas to complete the project! We worked collaboratively and learned that sometimes we need to approach challenges with an open mindset. We were struggling with visualizing how the structure would come together. However with a couple of adjustments from our previous attempts with our mini model and our last trial, we successfully created the hyperboloid shape!

After an introduction from the lovely Gestare Art Collective and a lunch break, we came back to begin our nap-in! The nap-in was a wonderful break from the more labour-intensive morning we experienced today! It gave us an opportunity to engage in reflective practice, by taking moments in the day to pause and step away from the hectic daily routines that most of us experience.

Spending time sewing and expressing our ideas for the dream scroll was a refreshing way to engage with a cross-curricular activity in the garden, combining our artistic expressions with the outdoor environment. It was also comforting to share this experience in comfortable silence together. The activity was concluded with a talking and sharing circle and followed by a ceremonial releasing of the dreams through the labyrinth and the original hyperboloid gate. Most of the group were hesitant about the nap-in but overall, we felt that it was a very enriching and rewarding experience that we hope to partake in again one day! 🙂

 

Saturday, June 25, 2016

Senses in the Garden Workshop

Today we engaged with our different senses in the garden starting with our sense of sight while looking at various plants in the garden and matching them to paint samples! It was eye-opening to finally notice the wide spectrum of colours within one physical space. We were delighted to find unique colours such as bright blues and shades of purple in such unexpected spots like at the bottom of corn plants.

   

We then removed the sense of sight and engaged with our sense of smell! In partners, one person lead the other partner who had their eyes closed around the garden. We were quite surprised about how heightened the rest of our senses were and how much trust we had to put on our partner as they guided us around! This would be a fun and interactive game for all ages although we did learn that it would be a good idea to provide blindfolds for younger children because they tend to peek!

After a sharing circle, we moved on to collecting different herbs and flowers for our homemade perfumes. Then we headed back to Scarfe for a delicious lunch! The workshop group prepared kale chips, rosemary potatoes, salad, bread, cheese, hummus, and mint chocolate chip cookies! Best of all, many of the ingredients were harvested from the Orchard Garden. The workshop group played some calming background music to appeal to the sense of hearing.

   

After lunch, we mixed together the different scents and created homemade perfumes! First we used popsicle sticks to crush the herbs and flowers in coffee filters which enabled us to control the intensity of the natural essences. We also watched a commercial made by students in Isis’ class who were advertising their perfumes. It was great to see students involved in their learning and seeing them connect technology with outdoor education!

Overall our 3-week CFE experience has been a wonderful journey with many learning opportunities for integrating garden-based learning in the school setting! We really appreciate all of the experiences and resources we have gone through during our CFE. We wish everyone the best in their teaching journeys!