Welcome everyone to our monthly E-Newsletter, supporting a network of school garden advocates! We will keep you updated on the latest news and work being done across school gardens programs here in Newark, New Jersey, and the best resources from across the country.   

Looking for a specific resource? Interested in having your own resources published? Reach out to us to discuss more at pevans@citybloom.org and we will be more than happy to help.

Our FoodCorps members have completed their first round of Fall Festivals at their school gardens! We finished off the rest of our fall festivals at Hawthorne Avenue, Lincoln, Avon Avenue, and Thirteenth Avenue Schools. 

Students engaged in mindfulness yoga, scavenger hunts in the garden, bug education, pumpkin crafts, and were able to taste test three varieties of apples where they got the opportunity to vote on their favorite apple! We look forward to the spring and warmer weather where we will host our Spring Festivals!

Register your school garden to be a part of our Newark School Garden Support Network and see where other school gardens are located near you!

These Family Programs are great to enjoy with your little ones, but you can join in on your own for an informal professional development session. They are an opportunity to see ways our environmental educators encourage kids to develop wonder, make observations, construct understanding, and engage in science conversations.  You can also learn some cool crafts, healthy recipes, and ways to incorporate more hands-on, engaged learning.

Second Saturday Family Adventures

In-Person

Saturday, December 14th @ 10:30-12pm

Embrace the chilly weather with us for a special Second Saturday Family Adventures! This month’s theme, 'Winter Gifts for All,' invites you to craft unique, nature-inspired gifts while learning about the winter garden.

Explore the changes our gardens undergo in winter and see how trees and habitats transform. This indoor/outdoor program is perfect for anyone looking to combine creativity with outdoor learning. Let’s stay warm together, crafting and exploring!

This program is free, but registration is required! If we hit capacity, please reach out to pevans@citybloom.org to be placed on the waitlist!

REGISTER HERE

School Garden Event Planning

In-Person

Wednesday, January 22nd @ 4-5pm

Do you have the dream of hosting a school garden festival? Or hosting a family cooking competition centered around a special vegetable? Join us on Wednesday, January 22nd from 4-5pm at the Greater Newark Conservancy as we go over our tips for planning successful garden events at your school garden. We will share out planning documents and pictures/videos that have documented the success of these events over the years.

REGISTER HERE

Bringing Climate Change Education to New Jersey’s K-5 Classrooms

Online

Tuesday, January 14th and 21st @ 4-5pm

Sustainable Jersey for Schools is excited to announce 18 NEW interdisciplinary units, developed through our partnership with SubjectToClimate, to support standards-based instruction for K-5 classrooms, including options for bilingual education. Check it out here!

Join one of their upcoming webinars to learn more about these units. Attendees will explore the Hub, review unit plans, and gain insights from the experts who developed these valuable resources. Enhance your teaching with valuable climate education materials!

LEARN MORE HERE

Celebrating Cultural Inclusion in the Garden

KidsGardening is happy to announce our newest e-course "Celebrating Cultural Inclusion in the School Garden!" This free e-course supports educators as they learn how to center cultural learning in their school garden program with a new curriculum of lesson plans, growing guides, and more. Its creation was supported in part by the USDA Patrick Leahy Farm to School Program.

This is a self-paced with unlimited access to the course materials.

REGISTER HERE

ANJEE 40th Annual Winter Conference

In-Person

Thursday, January 16th-Friday, January 17th, 2025

The Alliance for New Jersey Environmental Education (ANJEE) is seeking presentations to be held at The College of New Jersey on Thursday, January 16 and Friday January 17, 2025.

Sessions will be scheduled in one-hour blocks. If your workshop is more than one hour long -please request 2 blocks.  

The College of New Jersey is also allowing us to use the campus for outdoor field experience workshops. There will have space for 8-10 outdoor field experience workshops which will follow the same format as classroom presentations. 

LEARN MORE HERE

This month's Jersey Fresh Harvest of the Month is Cabbage! You can plant squash in New Jersey from June to November. The biggest cabbage grown ever was over 138 pounds and was grown in Alaska! Learn more about Cabbage here!

The Healthy Foods in Newark Schools Coalition held successful Fall Overhaul events at Malcolm X Shabazz High School and 13th Ave Elementary! With the energy and enthusiasm from both students and staff, the event truly became a memorable experience for everyone involved. The beautifully redecorated cafeterias were a big hit, creating a more inviting and vibrant dining space that students thoroughly enjoyed. It was rewarding to see everyone engage so positively with the wellness activities Wellness in the Schools offered—this aspect really seemed to resonate with the school communities.

How did the farmer fix his pants?

A cabbage patch!

Source: Wisconsin School Garden Network

Interested in bringing your students to the Outdoor Learning Center at Greater Newark Conservancy to experience the joy of nature-based education during the winter? Fill out this Field Trip Interest Form! We offer a variety of field trip programs that will spark the interest of any youth. Whether they are learning about urban habitats, diving into the world of bugs and insects, or seeing how worms can break down our food into a valuable soil amendment, your students will leave our site with a host of knowledge! Spring dates are currently booked, but we still have winter openings! For more information reach out to soleary@citybloom.org.

The work that we do would not be possible without the generosity of our donors. While we had to put some of our on-site programs temporarily on hold during the COVID-19 crisis, we are back to normal operations and ramping up a number of programs and activities at our Outdoor Learning Center, the Hawthorne Avenue Urban Farm, school partner gardens, as well as various virtual workshops.