School Garden: Early Education Project Management

By Faith Pranger
Joy Greisen Jewish Education Center
Anchorage, Alaska
Project Goal: Our goal was to use grant money in an effective way to allow each
classroom in Joy Greisen Jewish Education Center’s to have their own summer garden.

Project Budget: The budget was $100 dollars in a grant from a local contributor.
The grant was given to the school to “use on any garden supplies, plants or seeds” that
the school needed.

Process:
When I was approached to lead this project, I knew what the horticultural needs of my
classroom were, but I wanted to make sure the entire school had a say in what they
needed as the grant was there for them too! I started by meeting with the lead teacher
in each classroom(Infant teacher, walking infant teacher, toddler teacher(2), preschool
teacher and summer program teacher). This gave me the opportunity to hear what their
needs were for the garden project. Overall I was hearing that each class was interested
in getting fruit/vegetable starts, seeds, a class set of watering cans and a class set of
shovels. I made a list of what each class needed.

Class Watering cans Shovels Seeds Starts

Carrots, sunflowers, Strawberry, spinach,
Walking infant 5 5 beans. chard, cabbage

Native flower assortment, Strawberries, cabbage,

Toddler class 1 6 6 carrots, beans spinach

Native flower assortment, Strawberries, cabbage,

Toddler class 2 6 6 sunflowers, carrots spinach

Sunflowers, carrots, Strawberries, spinach,

Preschool X(Already had X(Already had beans, beats chard, cabbage
some) some)

Native flower assortment, Strawberries, spinach

Summer camp X(Had some) X(Had some) sunflowers,
forget-me-nots

I was able to purchase the items in the table, as requested by the teachers for $97.00.
That came in $3 below the budget!
Planning this project presented some challenges, like plant care, finding the right size
shovels and watering cans for our age groups and making sure each teacher knew
when to plant the starts and seeds. I communicated with the entire staff that the
fruit/vegetable starts had a deadline to be planted so that the plants could remain
healthy. I sent out this message two weeks before the deadline, then a reminder a week
before, and then a reminder the day before the deadline! None of the teachers were late
to get their plants starts in the ground on time so that the plants would be happy and
could flourish! I also communicated with them that planting our garden did not have to
stay outside, that they should incorporate garden concepts into their lesson plans! I
created my own lesson plans and offered to help with ideas if anyone needed any.
Overall I learned that leading a project required myself, the leader to
appropriately communicate the nature of our grant and explain reasonably what I could
supply with it. Then, ask teachers what they needed most out of a grant that could
supply plants or garden equipment. This allowed the staff to feel heard because I cared
about what their classroom needed out of this money we were given. Then I was able to
practice my communication and expectation skills by letting the staff know when seeds
and starts need to be in the ground. Letting people know this date ahead of time and
then giving weekly reminders was an effective way of managing the plant's safety and
timeline expectations for the grant.