COMMUNITY IMPACT
BRINGING CHILDREN TO THE GARDEN
Three years ago, as a Kinder parent I embraced gardening in the school garden. We (parents) started with painting edible garden's fence. Next, I designed an outdoor classroom with sitting stumps, platform/ harvest table, work bench and a sink station the volunteers built. With school's support and amazing school community we continue to bring children to the garden and run various activities. In the picture students are making salad garnished with edible flowers. 💐
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CAMPUS TRANSFORMATION
With a group of wonderful parents and continuous support from the school, we were able to run several landscape improvement projects for Washington Open Elementary School in Santa Clara. I helped to redesign the lower elementary area creating a native garden with outdoor sitting areas. Girl Scouts built sitting cubes for the central area. One of the school traditions is annual 5th graders overnight trip to Baclutha, so I was thinking about building just a platform reminding a boat. A talented dad actually built (almost) a real ship with a sail pole.
VARIOUS PROJECTS - BOOSTING CREATIVITY
Reduce- Reuse_Recycle
While making effort to reduce waste, I look around and try to figure out what can we do with materials that are no longer needed for their original purpose. Some of the projects became our schools annual tradition. How to engage the children with simple, yet eco friendly activities? We painted wrapping paper with bitter lettuce. To connect with the garden and support the school, we paint the produce shapes that are displayed on the garden fence. We ran several garden parties throughout a year.
With woodworking projects I'm trying to reuse the lumber by creating new pieces of furniture.