At this time of the year our thoughts are on drinking hot cocoa by the fire and spending holidays with family and friends. But warm weather will be here before we know it, so I wanted to take this opportunity to sow thoughts of spring and provide an update on the progress of the Janney Gardens.

Many of you have heard about the gardens at a PTA meeting or at Back to School Night, but for those of you new to the project, let me give an overview of the vision for the gardens. The Janney Garden project grew out of our school vision goal of "cultivating the skills, values, and confidence to support a lifetime of learning, leadership, and service."In support of this vision, the extensive gardens will provide a green space for learning, playing, and growing. The gardens will serve as an outdoor, experiential learning environment that will extend and enrich the school curriculum and student learning, as it capitalizes on student's natural curiosity about the natural world around them. The garden themes will come directly from the curriculum, supporting social studies and science standards. The inquiry experiences will provide opportunities for developing real world problem solving, cooperative, and leadership skills, supporting the Responsive Classroom principals that are practiced at Janney. Finally, the experiences of planning, planting, nurturing, and harvesting the garden will help students develop a sense of environmental stewardship, or a sense of responsibility for the environment.

Landscaper and former Janney parent, Barbara Balman, designed the initial plan for the gardens. The gardens are located on the east field and the plan includes, flower, vegetable, herb, native gardens, and a rain garden, as well as berry bushes and fruit trees. There will be a combination of raised beds and in-ground beds. There will be an outdoor classroom that will provide a covered space for classes to participate in environmental lessons, two sheds, a fence, an arbor, and a seating area featuring the Janney Oak benches at the entrance to the gardens. The plan includes starting a composting program in the lunchroom, and a "From Farm to Table" component where students will harvest, prepare and eat foods from the gardens. This part of the program will work in conjunction with the Healthy Foods Project.

Despite being delayed due to construction, the garden project is off to a great start. We have received two grants to help with the costs of the gardens and we have partnered with two organizations, City Blossoms and Whole Foods Market. Both organizations have provided materials such as raised beds and tools, and expertise. The field has been planted with 20 new trees including apple and fig trees. We have put down roots with the 2nd grade Pollinator Garden. The 2nd graders studied "New Plants" in their first science unit and then they researched, planned, and, with the help of many of their parents, planted two pollinator gardens. When spring comes, the gardens will be thriving habitats in which the 2nd graders can release the butterflies that they raise in their "Insects" unit. Also this fall, parent volunteers have been working on building the outdoor classroom structure that was designed by a parent, Bill Feeney. Over the winter months, we plan to get all structures in place so that planting can start in early spring. Once the structures are in place, planning will begin for putting in the various gardens, including a Mr. McGregor garden for the kindergarten, a potato garden for the 1st grade Inca and Maya Unit, a native plants rain garden for the 3rd grade, and a Three Sisters' colonial vegetable garden for the 4th grade.

We are excited about families and community members being a part of the garden project. As each grade level breaks ground for their garden, parents will be invited and encouraged to come help with preparing and planting the beds. We will also have several times during the year when we have garden work days to weed, mulch and otherwise maintain the gardens. During the summer, we will have families adopt a bed to care for and harvest over the summer months. As the gardens develop, there will be more ways that the community will be able to get involved, including with the composting and Farm to Food components of the project. Updates on the garden can be found in the Special Subjects Newsletter and on the Janney Science web page. If you have more questions, comments, or ideas, you can contact the committee through me, Laurie Young, at lyoung88@yahoo.com, or other members of the committee listed on the website.

So as you sip your hot chocolate, envision in your mind Janney students in a thriving green space, working in groups digging and preparing beds, carefully brushing off roots and transplanting seedlings, observing and drawing flowers and the first budding fruit, harvesting, washing, and preparing food for classmates to try in the cafeteria. And you will be seeing the Janney vision of students developing the skills and confidence to live a life of learning, leadership, and environmental service.

Shana Zallman created this slideshow of the amazing door decorations (username: doors  password: janney).  Thanks to all of our teachers and students for bringing our halls to life!