Habitat Project Resources

Introduction The following chart identifies themes (found in the top row) relating to schoolyard habitat, corresponding to books, videos, periodicals, and websites. The chart and the subsequent descriptions of each book, video, periodical and website is to be used as an easy to follow clearinghouse of information. Includes activities for use with students Includes Includes Includes gardening research, info on info, technical building especially info, or a school on native case grounds plants or studies project attracting wildlife

Schoolyard Discovery Habitat Project Resources

BOOKS
Birdscaping Your Garden: A Practical Guide to Backyard Birds and the Plants That Attract Them Worms Eat My Garbage Worms Eat Our Garbage: Classroom Activities for a Better Environment Blueprint for a Green School Sowing the Seeds of Success: How to Start and Sustain A Kids Gardening Project in Your Community Taylors Weekend Gardening Guides: Attracting Birds and Butterflies; How to plant a backyard habitat to attract hummingbirds and other winged wildlife All Hands in the Dirt: A Guide to Designing and Creating Natural School Grounds Greening School Grounds: Creating Habitats for Learning Chesapeake Bay Community Action Guide: A Step-by-Step Guide to Improving the Environment in your Neighborhood

Schoolyard Discovery Habitat Project Resources

Green Cross Easy-Step Books: Vegetables; How to Grow the Best Vegetables English in the School Grounds Digging Deeper: Integrating Youth Gardens Into Schools & Communities; A Comprehensive Guide Closing the Achievement Gap: Using the Environment as an Integrating Context for Learning Urban Challenge: The Challenge of the Urban School Site Conserving and Enhancing the Natural Environment: A Guide for Planning, Design, Construction, and Maintenance on New & Existing School Sites Schoolyard Habitat Project Guide Attracting Backyard Wildlife: A Guide For Nature-Lovers Steps to a Bountiful Kids Garden Planting An Oasis For Wildlife Access Nature Nature Nurtures: Investigating the Potential of School Grounds Beyond the Classroom: Exploration of Schoolground & Backyard Mapmaking with Children A Guide to the Management and Maintenance of School Grounds Homes for Wildlife: A Planning Guide for Habitat Enhancement on School Grounds

Includes activities for use with students

Includes Includes Includes gardening research, info on info, technical building especially info, or a school on native case grounds plants or studies project attracting wildlife

VIDEOS
Grounds for Change: An Introduction to School Ground Naturalization Schoolyard Habitats: Make Your School Grounds Come Alive

Schoolyard Discovery Habitat Project Resources

PERIODICALS
Gardening with Kids: Products from the National Gardening Association Green Teacher: Education for Planet Earth

Includes activities for use with students

Includes Includes Includes gardening research, info on info, technical building especially info, or a school on native case grounds plants or studies project attracting wildlife

INTERNET (Examples & Information)*

National Wildlife Federations Schoolyard Habitat ListServe http://www.nwf.org/Get-Outside/Be-OutThere/Educators/Schoolyard-Habitats/Certify-YourSchoolyard.aspx D.C. Schoolyard Greening http://www.dcschoolyardgreening.org/ Boston Schoolyard Initiative www.schoolyards.org National Environmental Education Foundation http://eeweek.org/resources/garden_curricula.htm Marylands Green Schools Program www.maeoe.org Chesapeake Bay Foundations Education Resources http://www.cbf.org/Page.aspx?pid=328 National Wildlife Federations Schoolyard Habitat Program www.nwf.org/schoolyardhabitats/ Smithsonian Education (Search garden under Science and Technology lesson plans) http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/educators/ The Evergreen Foundations Learning Grounds Program www.evergreen.ca/en/lg/lg.html A Thousand Friends of Frogs http://cgee.hamline.edu/frogs/ Butterflies of North America

http://butterflywebsite.com/Articles/ npwc/butterflychecklist.htm Maryland Native Plant Society www.mdflora.org North American Bluebird Society www.nabluebirdsociety.org American Horticultural Society http://www.ahs.org/ National Environmental Education Foundation http://eeweek.org/resources/garden_curricula.htm

Schoolyard Discovery Habitat Project Resources

San Fransisco Green Schoolyards http://www.sfgreenschools.org/ California School Garden Network http://www.csgn.org/page.php?id=120#3 Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center http://www.wildflower.org/ Wild Ones Landscapers http://www.for-wild.org Learning Through Landscapes http://www.ltl.org.uk/ Journey North http://www.learner.org/jnorth/ Monarch Watch http://www.monarchwatch.org/ Bat Conservation International http://www.batcon.org/home/default.asp Starting a School Garden http://aggiehorticulture.tamu.edu/kindergarden/child/school/sgintr o.htm Environmental Protection Agency Education http://www.epa.gov/teachers/teachresources.htm U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service http://www.fws.gov/ChesapeakeBay/schoolyd.html National Wildlife Foundation Eco-schools http://www.nwf.org/At-School.aspx

Includes activities for use with students

Includes Includes Includes gardening research, info on info, technical building especially info, or a school on native case grounds plants or studies project attracting wildlife

INTERNET (Grant Programs)*

Chesapeake Bay Trust www.chesapeakebaytrust.org National Fish and Wildlife Foundation www.nfwf.org School Grants

www.schoolgrants.org Environmental Protection Agency http://www.epa.gov/teachers/ National Wildlife Foundation www.nwf.org Hidden Valley School Garden Grants http://loveyourveggies.com/school_grants.php D.C. Schoolyard Greening http://www.dcschoolyardgreening.org/funding/grantwr iting.html Books

Adams, George. Birdscaping Your Garden: A Practical Guide to Backyard Birds and the Plants that Attract Them. Sydney, Australia: Rodale Press, Inc., by arrangement with Lansdowne Publishing Limited, 1998. This book is a beautiful as well as informative guide to many of the backyard birds in North America. Youll have a hard time taking your eyes away from the intimate hand-drawn and photographed portraits of the birds, but you should make the effort. Next to all the pictures are well-documented natural histories of the birds and their habitat preferences. Appelhof, Mary. Worms Eat My Garbage. Kalamazoo, MI: Flower Press, 1997. This is the classic text on composting using worms as a decomposer. If a garden and compost pile is in your schools future, this book provides a practical and educational approach to the subject of worm composting. Appelhof, Mary; Fenton, Mary Frances and Barbara Loss Harris. Worms Eat Our Garbage: Classroom Activities for a Better Environment. Kalamazoo, MI: Flower Press, 1993. If she convinced you composting with worms was a good idea in Worms Eat My Garbage, then using this classroom-related activity guide based on vermicomposting will be an easy and educational decision. Chase, Jayni. Blueprint for a Green School. Foreword by Thomas E. Lovejoy. New York, NY: Scholastic, Inc., 1995. A textbook outlining the many environmental considerations of operating a school, from the nutrition in the cafeteria, to possible chemical sensitivities in the art room, to recycling and conserving water and electricity. This schools environmental encyclopedia will make it possible for all schools to reduce their impact on the environment. Eames-Sheavly, Marcia and the National Gardening Association. Sowing the Seeds of Success: How to Start and Sustain A Kids Gardening Project in Your Community. Burlington, VT: National Gardening Association, 1999. A very compact and informative booklet that gives all the basic details that need to be considered when creating and maintaining a garden project with schools, students and the community.
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Ellis, Barbara. Taylors Weekend Gardening Guides: Attracting Birds and Butterflies; How to plant a backyard habitat to attract hummingbirds and other winged wildlife. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997. Ms. Ellis describes in detail the different plants and actions you can take to provide a great habitat for local species of birds and butterflies. Evergreen Foundation, The. All Hands in the Dirt: A Guide to Designing and Creating Natural School Grounds. The Learning Grounds Program: www.evergreen.ca A schoolyard project guide that is process-oriented, this booklet promotes the active engagement of all participants, including students, teachers and community members. The ecology of the land is the main focus behind the planning and design of the project, according to the authors of this guidebook.

Grant, Tim and Gail Littlejohn, eds. Greening School Grounds: Creating Habitats for Learning. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers, 2001. This text is a collaboration of several authors whose collective experience is valuable to the reader beginning a school grounds greening project. From the pedagogy to volunteer partners and possible projects, this book is easy to read and full of useful information on creating habitats for learning. Greenfeld, Jennifer and Brian M. Le Couteur. Chesapeake Bay Community Action Guide: A Step-by-Step Guide to Improving the Environment in Your Neighborhood. Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, Department of Environmental Programs, 1994. This guide will help you lead urban communities through environmental restoration projects, including storm drain stenciling, stream cleaning and reforestation. Also includes a regional resource guide and native plant list for planting along streams or ponds. Haas, Cathy. Green Cross Easy-Step Books: Vegetables; How to Grow the Best Vegetables. San Ramon, CA: Ortho Books, 1996. This book is a no-nonsense guide to planting and harvesting vegetables year-round. It includes great information from planning a site all the way to listing the best conditions for storing fresh vegetables after theyve been harvested. Keaney, Brian. English in the School Grounds. Crediton, Devon, UK: Southgate Publishers Ltd, 2001. From across the pond comes a booklet detailing many activities related to the classroom subjects of English, Reading and Writing that are specific to being completed using the school grounds. Activities include games, writing poetry, researching and reporting a local history, creating a school grounds newsletter, and much more. Kiefer, Joseph and Martin Kemple. Digging Deeper: Integrating Youth Gardens Into Schools & Communities; A Comprehensive Guide. Forward by Alice Waters. Vermont: Food Works and the Common Roots Press, 1998.
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When they say A Comprehensive Guide, thats what they mean. This book includes: essays, tips, case studies, lesson plans, design plans, sample meeting agendas, student and adult activities, and more. The entire book was written with an evident passion for youth and gardening projects.

Lieberman, Gerald A., Ph.D. and Linda L. Hoody, M.A. Closing the Achievement Gap: Using the Environment as an Integrating Context for Learning. Poway, CA: Science Wizards, 1998. This is the groundbreaking document that put the first research-based evidence to the success behind environmental education on a national scale. It gives those who use the environment as a teaching tool the proof they need to push for similar methods in all courses of study from language arts to social studies, not just science. Martin, Deborah; Lucas, Bill; Titman, Wendy and Siobhan Hayward. Urban Challenge: The Challenge of the Urban School Site. Winchester, UK: Optimum Litho Ltd, 1996. From Learning Through Landscapes, the group in Great Britain that has formalized school grounds greening projects for over ten years, this guide focuses on the issues faced by urban schools: small spaces, hard surfaces, vandalism, creative multi-use areas, and long-term maintenance. By using detailed case studies and the knowledge gained from their years of experience, this book offers a lot of advice for those beginning urban school grounds habitat projects. Maryland State Department of Education. Conserving and Enhancing the Natural Environment: A Guide for Planning, Design, Construction, and Maintenance on New & Existing School Sites. Baltimore, MD: MSDE, 1999. The Green Book is a guide to school grounds projects for Marylands educators. Although not as pretty as some of the other guides, this is a great resource for project plans and case studies specific to Maryland. Written in part by the U.S. Fish and Wildlifes Rich Mason (Marylands own schoolyard habitat guru), you know the information will be perfect for your schools project. Mason, Rich and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services Chesapeake Bay Field Office. Schoolyard Habitat Project Guide. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. This is a project guide with planning tips and development activities for student participation in the project planning. The information in this basic guide will give you a good start on your schools project. Merilees, Bill. Attracting Backyard Wildlife: A Guide For Nature-Lovers. Stillwater, MN: Voyageur Press, 1989. No matter what your property size, this book offers simple ideas for, as the title says, attracting backyard wildlife. Mr. Merilees speaks about plants, housing and water features for a variety of backyard wildlife, while focusing most specifically on birds. National Gardening Association. Steps to a Bountiful Kids Garden. South Burlington, VT: National Gardening Association, 2001. This guide will give you all the information you need to get a kids garden off the ground and be successful. You dont need any extensive gardening skills, just a willingness to make gardening part of your students
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experience. This is a complete guide with a variety of information, including fundraising, planting indoors and composting. National Wildlife Federation. Planting An Oasis For Wildlife. National Wildlife Federation, 1986. This is a general habitat creation guide, with a very detailed section on suitable backyard habitat plants. Most importantly, the book notes plants that are native to the United States and the specific region in which they can be found. National Wildlife Federation. Access Nature. National Wildlife Federation, 2001. Focusing on wildlife habitat, this holistic and experiential outdoor education curriculum includes activity variations for disabled students. Raffan, James, Ph.D. Nature Nurtures: Investigating the Potential of School Grounds. Toronto, Ontario: Evergreen, 2000. This resource summarizes much of the data that has been collected with regards to school grounds projects. It works as a perfect complement to Closing the Achievement Gap. These are the first texts devoted to collecting the research that has occurred on these projects and it is very important in promoting them for future success. Roth, Charles E.; Cervoni, Cleti; Wellnitz, Thomas and Elizabeth Arms. Beyond the Classroom: Exploration of Schoolground & Backyard. Lincoln, MA: The Massachusetts Audubon Society, 1991. This booklet offers life science and physical science activities for the outdoor spaces around your school. Different activities are appropriate and available for grades K-9 and vary in length from twenty minutes to several class periods. Sobel, David. Mapmaking with Children. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1998. This book is the result of the authors work with children in England, Costa Rica and New England. He stresses the importance of making maps in a childs development and the different techniques and activities that are best used at different age and grade levels. If mapmaking is a strategy you want to use in your own schoolyard habitat project, this book is a fantastic resource. Wood, Joan and Michael Littlewood. A Guide to the Management and Maintenance of School Grounds. Winchester, Hampshire, UK: Optimum Litho, 1996. The authors have put together a very detailed look at all aspects of school grounds maintenance. Although the components speaking directly to specific contract laws between a maintenance company and a school may not apply to our schools in the United States, the concepts, charts and details are very applicable to problems we encounter in project maintenance. Wyzga, Marilyn C. Homes for Wildlife: A Planning Guide for Habitat Enhancement on School Grounds. Concord, NH: New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, 1998. This considerable guide explains the process that students and teachers need to grow an outdoor classroom by enhancing their school grounds.
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 Videos Evergreen Foundation, The. Grounds for Change: An Introduction to School Ground Naturalization. Introductory video from Canadas premier national organization working to create more schoolyard habitats. National Wildlife Foundation. Schoolyard Habitats: Make Your School Grounds Come Alive Introductory video from the premier national organization working to certify schoolyard habitats in the United States. Periodicals Gardening with Kids: Products from the National Gardening Association This catalog offers a wide variety of backyard and schoolyard gardening as well as indoor gardening tools, ranging from seeds to greenhouses to tools, including kid-sized garden tools. To receive a catalog, call 800-5387476 or check out www.kidsgardening.com. Green Teacher: Education for Planet Earth Green Teacher magazine is a wonderful periodical addressing environmental education from a classroom teachers point of view. Each issue focuses on an environmental issue or theme and offers case studies from around the United States, Canada and beyond. Useful tips for using environmental education in the classroom and activities to try are also presented. Internet Resources (Project Examples & Information) National Wildlife Federations Schoolyard Habitat ListServe Send a blank email to: syh-exchange-subscribe@igc.topica.com Subscribing to this listserve will allow you to automatically be in touch with teachers who are creating and using schoolyard habitats around the country. Use this forum to ask questions or to get ideas from other teachers and experts at the National Wildlife Federation. Boston Schoolyard Initiative www.schoolyards.org This website describes a citywide program of school grounds enhancement in Boston, Massachusetts. Marylands Green Schools Program www.maeoe.org Follow the link to Green Schools Program to find information on how your school can become one of the Governors Green Schools. Chesapeake Bay Foundations Student Baysaver www.bayschools.org/students/index.php3 This is a web site for students on how to join and be active as a Student Baysaver.
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Chesapeake Bay Foundations Bay School Project www.bayschools.org/educators/bsp/index.php3 Use the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed as educational tools in teaching your students and turn your school into a Bay School! Education Organizations and Projects http://eelink.umich.edu This web site offers classroom and professional resources in environmental education as well as grant information. National Wildlife Federations Schoolyard Habitat Program www.nwf.org/schoolyardhabitats/ This is an excellent site!!! The Evergreen Foundations Learning Grounds Program www.evergreen.ca/en/lg/lg.html This program helps schools create outdoor classrooms to provide students with a healthy place to play, learn and develop a genuine respect for nature. A Thousand Friends of Frogs http://cgee.hamline.edu/frogs/ This web site is a great resource if you are interested in including frogs in your schoolyard project. Butterflies of North America http://butterflywebsite.com/Articles/npwc/butterflychecklist.htm An electronic field guide with listings by state including photographs and species accounts of all butterflies in the United States. Maryland Native Plant Society www.mdflora.org Provides a list of Maryland native plants by habitat as well as a nursery list, techniques to control invasive plants and much more. North American Bluebird Society www.nabluebirdsociety.org Useful information about blue birds if a bluebird trail is a project that interests your school. American Horticultural Society http://www.ahs.org/ Plant related information and links to the Growing Connections program and to a national list of childrens gardens (under the youth gardening section.) Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center http://www.wildflower.org/ Regional native plant lists, as well as educator kits, which contain plant info and posters for use in the classroom. Wild Ones Landscapers http://www.for-wild.org This site is dedicated to the importance of landscaping with native plants. Includes an excellent how-to handbook that guides you through habitat projects.

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Learning Through Landscapes http://www.ltl.org.uk/ This site is a good source for schoolyard curriculum integration. Also a good site for info on maintenance and fundraising for a habitat project. Journey North http://www.learner.org/jnorth/ This site is a good resource for curriculum integration especially when talking about habitat for migrating species. Monarch Watch http://www.monarchwatch.org/ This site is great for curriculum integration discussing butterfly gardens and habitat for Monarchs. Bat Conservation International http://www.batcon.org/home/default.asp This site is great curriculum integration relating to bat habitats. Internet Resources (Grant Programs) Chesapeake Bay Trust www.chesapeakebaytrust.org This organization gives out money for all types of projects. Let the students write as much of the grant as possible. National Fish and Wildlife Foundation www.nfwf.org Follow link to Grant Programs. SchoolGrants www.schoolgrants.org A web site that lists grant opportunities throughout the nation and by state. Environmental Protection Agency www.epa.gov Go to web site and search for grants. National Wildlife Foundations Schoolyard Habitats Program www.nwf.org Go to web site and search for grants and more specifically Wild Seed Fund Mini-Grant.

* If any of the Internet resources interest you, please contact Irvines Schoolyard Habitat Coordinator (410-4842413, extension 22 or hobbsr@explorenature.org) so that we can obtain more information for you and so that you can further explore a projects feasibility for your schoolyard and its adaptability to your curriculum. * These are just a few of the Internet resources and grant opportunities available. We encourage you to do your own searches as well. As you know, information and grant opportunities are always changing on the web.

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