Project Report
| May 30, 2011
Teaching Eco-Sustainability in the Garden!
![Children Learn in the Garden]()
Children Learn in the Garden
Hello Wonderful Donors!
With the warming of the weather, GITC has gone out into the garden with our programs in May as we begin to help teachers unite science lessons with hands-on learning in school "life labs" where nutrition and health take on a whole new meaning.
On May 11 and 18th, we piloted the first ever 'Sing Green Workshops' in the Conejo Unified School District, a bit northeast of Los Angeles, CA. This exciting new initiative has been made possible with help and involvement from musician Jack Johnson, his brilliant wife and partner in all things eco and non-profit Kim, and their Johnson Ohana Charitable Foundation, and with very much appreciated funding from the Guitar Center Charitable Giving Committee, located right there in Thousand Oaks!
Our good friend Moriah Harris-Rodgers, executive director of the Fender Music Foundation dropped in to participate with the teachers- a real treat! Moriah has had a hand in helping shape programs and get guitars to teachers over the past several years and it was great to see her. We would love YOU to do the same. Please join us for a class if you can to take part in the learning and fun while we create meaningful change in the schools.
These Sing Green workshops utilize a book we created (called The Green Songbook) with active participation from all kinds of dedicated, inspired people. If you want to see who helped, you can! Just visit the website for The Green Songbook at
www.GreenSongbook.com and peek inside. Any chapter you click will tell you about a different writer. And to see the artists involved, simply click on the Songwriters tab on the Look Inside page.
Sing Green teacher training workshops help teachers make Farm to School and Garden Learning an engaging, unforgettable, community bonding experience through the integration of participatory green music making with lessons on sustainable farming and gardening, plant science, nature lessons, and practical experiences building a school garden, and planting, growing, harvesting, preparing, cooking, and eating garden-grown food.
Why is the music so important? Because long after the fun lessons end, the green songs will remain. Long after the garden has been studied, made into meals, and consumed, the green waste going into compost, the green songs will be sung and shared. And each song carries distinct knowledge, experience, and hope. It awakens good memories for the students and inspires them to go back into the garden, get outdoors, eat right, shop at their local farmer's market, conserve, reduce, reuse, and recycle, treasure nature and to protect the earth.
Thank you for contributing to this work. The funds you have donated will help us make these Sing Green materials available to teachers wherever they are training with GITC. We hope you can enjoy getting out into a garden this week, renewing your spirit in sunshine and new growth, and perhaps you will even check out your community's school and community garden projects. We've included a link to the website allatonce.org where they list the non-profits affiliated with Jack and Kim Johnson's effort to cultivate Earth stewardship. Among those listed are some very exciting organizations involved in school and community gardening, just FYI.
Please enjoy,
Jess
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