Sustainability

Planting a Veggie Patch

1. What students could learn from this resource (VELS/AusVELslevel & learning focus statement).

Learning focus from VELS:

Humanities- Level 2

They begin to understand how local resources are used to make products which meet local people’s needs and the needs of people in other places.

2. How and why the resource would be used in the classroom for HSE learning (Prep – Year 2).

We will be planting some seeds in the schools veggie garden. After learning about how some types of fruit grow, and where the fruit at the supermarket comes from, as a class we will have the opportunity to plant some ourselves. Each student will have done a mini poster on a particular vegetable in order to find out how to grow, maintain and to see if it is a suitable vegetable to grow in our veggie patch. This will be an ongoing project and will require class monitors each week to ensure the plants are maintained and continue to grow, giving students responsibility throughout the year. This will be a very hands on activity for students to learn about growing their  own resources.

3. A brief description of how your resource/activity responds to an aspect or aspects of the readings for that week.

This resource is a key part in aiming to have a sustainable school, there would be many other implementations that help in making the school sustainable. According to Hicks, ‘all schools should aim to become ‘sustainable’ school’ (Hicks, 2011 p. 10), and by having a sustainable school it means that students can see some of the things they are taught about sustainability happening around the school. It is important for young people as ‘a sustainable school prepares young people for a lifetime of sustainable living through its teaching, fabric and its day-to-day practices’ (Hicks, 2011 p. 10). Students can learn that it’s not that difficult to have a veggie garden, by learning about it at school it means that they will know what to do if they were to have one at home.

Veggie Patch at Vermont Primary School