Land to Learn is a fabulous, fantastic, and fun-filled educational hands-on program that allows scholars to experience farm-to-table participation in their school. Having been a teacher who has observed the growth of Land to Learn since its inception, I have witnessed the compassionate, positive, and resourceful activities that the Land to Learn instructors design for all scholars. My scholars always inquire when it is going to be Garden Time, as they eagerly look forward to taking part in the purposeful and relevant NYS Next Gen learning standards-based projects. In closing, Land to Learn is an enthusiastic educational program that allows my scholars to create meaningful connections of real-world experiences to our curriculum of Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems.
-Mrs. Lynn Kirk, Temple Hill Academy, Newburgh
Having the Land to Learn SproutEd program incorporated into our classroom has been an amazing experience, for not only myself as an educator, but for the students. The curriculum they provide is enriched and a great extension to the one within the classroom. After learning about plant life cycles in the classroom they are able to witness it in the garden and experience the process. The students are able to make connections between the classroom and the world. They have learned about communities working together to source food from the land. It has broadened the students vocabulary and experiences with the environment and food. The hands-on experience is something many students may not have had the opportunity for if not for this program. Ms. Nicole has been a wonderful asset with her positive and warm demeanor. She has created a respectful and open relationship with the students. Each year the students look forward to working with Ms. Nicole and the garden!
-Alicia Grant, JV Forrestal, Beacon
My students love learning about the garden. They seem very interested in what is being taught to them. I have a few students who I know garden at home, and give me beautiful flowers weekly. I also know that my students love participating in creating delicious food from the garden. So much so that they include their families in recreating the garden food at home. Last week, Ms. O taught an amazing lesson. She taught the class about salsa and how to make it using fresh ingredients from the garden. All of my students raved for the entire week about the lesson. We created a challenge for the students to make the recipe at home. Many of them did, and emailed pictures that very night. The following days I received many pictures of my students' homemade salsa. I had two students bring me their salsa to try, and even received a birthday gift of homemade salsa from a student. This lesson was a great success! They all gained the skill of making homemade salsa, and learned that the ingredients can come right from their backyards.
-Ms. Morgan, Temple Hill Academy, Newburgh