Author: Joanne Laine-Gossin
TPUF's children's learning team had the opportunity to partner with LiftED Literacy and Leadership to host a garden summer camp program. LiftED is a charity that works with Toronto District School Board (TDSB) to boost literacy and leadership in underserved Toronto communities.
The TPUF team consisted of Children's Program Leads Joanne and Asma, volunteers Aarah, Umama and Mymoona, as well as our co-op student, August. We planned 3 sessions per week for 4 weeks that each ran for roughly 2 hours in our community garden at 53 Thorncliffe Park, through the month of July. The first session was for grades 1 and 2, followed by a session for grades 3 and 4, and a third session for grades 4 to 6. We welcomed approximately 18 to 20 children per session, and each group continued to visit once each week for 4 weeks. One educator plus 4 volunteers from LiftED accompanied each group. There were also around 3 to 4 volunteers from TPUF in addition to our core team to assist our programming, all of whom were wonderful and helped to make the camp a big success.
We planned activities that were fun, involved cooperation and sharing, and that centered on garden exploration and learning about nature. The activities were scalable so that 5 and 6 year olds could participate at their level while the 10 and 11 year olds were able to do the same activities but at a more advanced level. Before describing the activities, I want to stress that the children's own inquisitiveness, eagerness to participate, and fascination with the garden made the summer camp a great success. Many of the children had been to the garden before but all of them were excited and keen to view insects, smell various herbs and explore the garden through a fresh perspective. It was a delight to interact with them.
Each week included a garden exploration tour or scavenger hunt where the children found and inspected various plants, vegetables, insects, pollinators, and other garden inhabitants. They then drew or wrote about what they found in their journals. They painted little clay pots and the following week planted seeds in them; these were given to them to take home so that they could care for their plants while watching them grow. They also planted soil and seeds in egg shells which they took back to their classrooms for the same purpose.
We have an amazing pollinator and woodland garden within our garden space at 53 TPD, and were so fortunate that Asma was able to bring in monarch caterpillars for the children to see. This of course led to a discussion on the monarch butterflies and a visual inspection of the milkweed plants. The children made bird feeders and nests using pine cones and leaves from the garden; these were also given to them to place on balconies or other permissible locations. A discussion around healthy animal and bird food was part of the activity.
Another activity that was spread over 2 weeks was making herbariums. Our team collected some wild flowers from our local ravine and one of our members brought in flowers from her backyard. The children made herbariums by spreading flowers on newspapers and stacked them using heavy books. They were left to dry until the next session, when the children placed them on white paper, labelling the plants and flowers as best as they could. We discussed herbariums, and stressed the difference between native, non-native, and invasive plant species, using the houseplants and wild flowers as examples. The herbariums were then given to the children as souvenirs of their experience of learning about various plant species.
During our last session, we gave the children a little quiz. It was rewarding for us to see that they did not view this as something onerous but rather as an opportunity to show what they had learned. Help from volunteers was readily available to anyone who struggled, so all seemed to feel a sense of pride at what they had learned and accomplished. As everyone left at the end of the last session, each child was given a loot bag that consisted of a little pot, seeds, and soil which they were very happy to receive. We were sad that the camp had finished but the whole team felt it was a wonderful experience for us, and for the children.
