Have you thought about starting a garden to use in your teaching? What if you’re in an urban area? Perhaps you’re working on a shoe-string budget. How can you get started and, most importantly, keep a garden going once the initial excitement fades? These are some of the questions and challenges that Noel Cibulka and the team at KidsGardening tackle on a daily basis. Noel joined us to talk all things school gardening, including specific tips on how to integrate math into garden-based education.

Guest: Noel Cibulka

Adapted from the Kids Gardening website:

Noel Cibulka started with KidsGardening in the summer of 2022. As Educational Content Manager she helps develop KG’s annual garden-based educational content strategy, co-developing original educational materials, overseeing the editorial calendar and supporting the content marketing plan. She also supports the KidsGardening Community with resource vetting and engagement.

Growing up in Honolulu, Hawai‘i, Noel developed a deep appreciation for the natural world while swimming, hiking, gardening, and foraging for fruit with family and friends. She holds a BA in Creative Writing from University of Southern California, where she developed a passion for informal education, teaching poetry workshops at 32nd Street School/USC Magnet.

Mentioned in episode:

• KidsGardening
• Math in the Garden (book)
• Math in the Garden e-Course

Related resources:

• The Everyday School Garden
• Sowing the Seeds of Wonder
• Jardiner à l’école

Jade is our resident chionophile (look it up), so she popped over to the other side of the mic for this episode about outdoor learning in places where winter is cold and snowy. There’s talk of winter mystery bags, using snowflakes as lessons prompts, connections to literacy, and the importance of movement. We also get into the nitty gritty of clothing and ways of ensuring that everyone has access to the right gear when temperatures drop below freezing. Also, how do chickadees’ brains change in the winter?

Mentioned in episode:

• Dressing for the Weather diagram from Christina Pickles
• A Walking Curriculum

Related resources:

• The Big Book of Nature Activities
• Sitting with Nature: An Educator’s Guide to Sit Spots
• Dirty Teaching: A Beginner’s Guide to Learning Outdoors

Prepositions matter in this episode, specifically that three-letter word ‘for.’ What is outdoor learning ‘for’ assessment? How can we facilitate outdoor learning ‘for’ social-emotional learning (SEL)? Teacher, writer, podcaster, and regular sit-spot practitioner Lauren MacLean of Teach Outdoors joined us to talk assessment and SEL in the context of learning outdoors. We also got into the weeds regarding British Columbia’s competency-based assessment framework as well as documenting learners’ progress on a continuum.

Guest: Lauren MacLean

From the Teach Outdoors website

“I was born and raised in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada by my two amazing parents. My brother, sister, and I grew up playing in the ditches and wetlands in the summer and exploring the snowy mountains in the winter.

I now live in Port Moody, BC. It’s still on the West Coast of Canada, just a bit further up the Burrard Inlet. My family lives at the top of Heritage Mountain where we enjoy taking our two young toddlers and energetic dog on forest hikes.

I am very grateful to be living and learning on these lands which lie on the traditional, unceded territory of the Coast Salish people since time immemorial.”

Mentioned in episode:

• Teach Outdoors
• Teach Outdoors Podcast
• CASEL
• Wild Learning (Rachel Tidd)

Related resources:

• Sitting with Nature: An Educator’s Guide to Sit Spots
• Me and My Sit Spot
• Me and My Sit Spot for Early Learners
• Embracing Risky Play at School