Garden

Our gardening program is a living laboratory that provides children with hands-on horticultural education. Garden experience helps children learn about nature and our environment, life science, economics, and sustainability. Each grade participates in planning, maintaining, and harvesting the fruits of their labor throughout the year. In addition, our garden supports a vermicomoposting program which uses waste from the school lunches to feed our worm bins. The resulting compost is sold by West Side students at the local farmers’ market and proceeds go directly back to supporting the garden.

Garden projects such as the “pizza garden” are often extensions of the classroom curriculum. For example, in this program, students grow ingredients for the pizza—tomatoes, herbs and wheat. The wheat is harvested and ground to make the flour. After the harvest, the students celebrate with a harvest feast.

West Side School students participate in the Sotoyome Resource Conservation District green waste recycling program.

Students can elect to join the school’s “RecyCool Club” and be part of the team that manages the school’s waste.

Staff members have participated in the teacher training programs offered by the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, connecting West Side to the School Garden Network.

Link - West Side students participate in RecyCool Composting: http://sotoyomercd.org/recycle.htm

These enrichment programs are made possible through the generous funding from the Felta Education Foundation.