Seed to Seed Gardening Program
The Preschool offers a very exciting program called Seed to Seed, a school-wide gardening project. With the help of alumni parent Nat Zappia (son Aidan), and many parent volunteers, we began this project on our annual Beautification Day on February 25, 2017.
Nat, Director of Institute for Sustainability and History Professor at CSUN, former Executive Director of the Garden School Foundation, and a UC certified Master Gardener, has volunteered at Westminster Elementary School Garden (Venice), Crenshaw High School Garden, and the Grow Good Garden Program (Salvation Army Shelter, Bell).
Parent volunteer Gerardo Maldanado (daughter Norah) built the beautiful gardening boxes for our Preschool.
Gerardo was an artist by the time he could hold a pencil, and attended Art Institute of Chicago. As a natural “fixer” he made the transition into building and repairing anything and everything.
Each class has a designated area and there are 2 community (shared) planting spaces. Our preschool teachers include into their everyday routine an interdisciplinary approach to teaching students a variety of lessons through gardening. Teachers incorporate art, drama, culture, history, recycling, individual expression, literacy, science, cooking, physical activity, and tactile lessons into lessons revolving around the “seed-to-seed” cycle. We are grateful to our wonderful parent volunteers, and so excited to have this program in place.
Come by and see what’s growing!
