You don't want to miss our Winter 2012 Newsletter.

In This Issue

Garden Tips and Lessons
Lesson – Six Seed Trail Mix
Making Garden Signs – Tips and Photos
Lesson Packet – Feeling Fine With Fresh Foods
Recipe – Winter Squash Teacakes 

Program Updates
2011 Program Highlights 
Announcing the California School Garden Training Program
Sharing Adventures With Others
"Food, What?!" Photo-of-the-Month – Sign Up
Meet Our Outreach Director – … [Read More →]

Feeling Fine With Fresh Foods

Lesson packet from our Feeling Fine with Fresh Foods Field Trip.

Our winter field trip helps students make the important connection between their health and the foods they choose. Classes explore our Garden Classroom and the UCSC Farm, and activities prepare students to make informed decisions about what they eat.

Download the pre/post visit lesson packet (25 pages) for 3rd-5th grades which includes:

• Stone Soup
… [Read More →]

By labeling the plants in their garden, kids learn about them and make
the connections between the foods they eat and the plants growing
in the garden. Adults also … [Read More →]

Life Lab is a national leader in farm- and garden-based education. At the Life Lab Garden Classroom in Santa Cruz, California, we promote experiential learning for all ages through children’s camps, field trips, youth and internship programs, and teacher workshops. Drawing on over thirty years of work with students we have also created curricula and workshops for educators interested in bringing learning to life in gardens nationwide.… [Read More →]

Upcoming Workshops at the Life Lab Garden Classroom

Saturday, March 10 - New Offering Supporting English Learners in Science

Thursday – Friday, March - The Growing Classroom: Intro to Garden-Based Learning

Friday, March 30 - Spring Plant It, Grow It, Eat It: Garden-Enhanced Nutrition Education

Thursday, May 17 - New Offering Science Inquiry in the Garden

Saturday, May 19 - Sowing the Seeds of Wonder: Discovering the Garden … [Read More →]

Really not much has changed. Well, except the hairdos, computers and a few other things, but all in all school gardens were based on the same concepts as today. Sun, soil, water and air mixed with … [Read More →]

It has been another successful season of growth, learning and wonder for Life Lab and the thousands of kids, youth, families, teachers and schools we serve. Hear what our program participants had to say about our work in in our 2011 Highlights flier.

2011 by the numbers:

• 3,100 children participated in field trips and camps at our Garden Classroom
   
• 893 teens grew stronger, healthier and more inspired though "Food,
… [Read More →]

A great extension to a seed study lesson. Make a trail mix of edible seeds while students practice math skills. While eating your trail mix discuss all the ways we eat seeds and grains. Download seed cards and lesson.… [Read More →]

We are looking forward to a new year of bringing learning to life in a garden.

As we get ready to roll we invite you to take a look at our staff holiday party pics. The Santa Cruz Roller Palladium hosted our mini-gala. Not quite like most staff holiday parties, but we sure had fun!… [Read More →]

We have the goal to raise $12,500 through the Good Times Community Fund.  Right now, every dollar donated will be matched.  Please Consider a Year-End Donation to Keep FoodWhat Going and Growing in 2012!  Every bit counts–from $10 to $10,000–each contribution will keep us strong and supports local youth!

View the … [Read More →]

• 60+ unique experiences and products to browse!
• Get a jump on your holiday shopping!!
• Have fun shopping online for a good cause!!!

Your auction purchases will help Life Lab change the lives of kids and teens through farm- and garden-based education and empowerment programs.

Auction … [Read More →]

It is not often that we have graduate level interns, who have classroom experience, and are proficient with a video camera and editing. We lucked out! Callia Wolfe shares a bit about her path to finding us and her experience at the Garden Classroom. Callia writes….

I have heard it called many things: destiny, kismet, serendipity. All terms referring to the moment when your path opens, you can feel a … [Read More →]

Here is the … [Read More →]

Worm Composting Basics

The Worm Guide: Vermicomposting Guide for Teachers From California Waste Management Board

Even More from CalRecycle

Play Worm Bin Bingo

Our Worms Signs are a nice addition to your compost area

Learn to compost with worms. Our How to Compost with … [Read More →]

Life Lab Internships

Long ago, before the time of higher education, SAT’s and grueling college applications, we would instead dedicate ourselves to a mentor. Apprenticeships took the place of school, giving us a career path guided by another person skilled in the trade that we chose to follow. Todays apprenticeship type experiences often take the form of what we refer to as internships.

A … [Read More →]

Our summer day camps are coming to a close. Foggy mornings and sunny afternoons have framed great days of exploration, harvest, cooking, crafts, farm chores, and fresh-fruit-pop-sucking-story-time.

Two chicks were born during camp, one is a unique Frizzle chick! Only about 1/4 of Frizzle offspring actually get the curly frizzled feathers and this chick is fantasically frizzled.

Expanded sessions of Garden Sprouts were … [Read More →]

Over the years we have been asked, "Do you have any garden-based education resources in Spanish?"

Here's a nice collection of resources for teaching and working in school and community gardens with Spanish speakers:

The Life Lab Science K-5 Curriculum is a garden-based science curriculum which is in written in English with Spanish language handouts, parent letters, and lab pages. It is the most thorough resource that we have seen … [Read More →]

Check out more "Food, What?!" Photo-of-the-Months… [Read More →]

Few spaces still open. Come join us at Life Lab for an exciting season of all-new Garden Day Camps at the Life Lab Garden Classroom

New this year at camp

• Early-care and after-care!
• Expanded Garden Sprouts Camp!

Visit our camp page to learn more

• Wildlands & Watering Cans Camp for 7-10 year olds
• Garden Sprouts Camp for 4-6 year olds
• Farm & Wilderness Camp for 11-14 year olds
• Summer Camp
… [Read More →]

Santa Cruz Weekly Strawberry Blast An Eye-Opener for Students had this to say:

Hosted by Life Lab’s youth empowerment group, Food, What?!, the fourth annual Strawberry Blast took 300 middle and high school students from Santa Cruz County on

… [Read More →]

“We believe in the power of youth – that young people have a voice and that food is the perfect vehicle to begin that journey.

… [Read More →]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The City of Santa Cruz Officially Proclaims May 1 to be Garden Classroom Day in Honor of Life Lab Science Program’s Onsite … [Read More →]

Research on nutrition education and cooking activities with kids consistently point to positive and lasting affects on their perception of food. After being involved with the creation of healthy recipes, kids routinely show an inclination for choosing and enjoying fruits and vegetables. There is even more evidence of this when cooking is paired with garden based education. The full circle really hits home when a child is involved with a … [Read More →]

As part of our tenth anniversary we are asking you to help create the Top Ten of Farm or Garden-based education.

If your contribution is selected for our top ten list you will win a copy of our … [Read More →]

Sunday, May 1, 2011
10 am – 12 pm

For 32 years, Life Lab has been teaching people to care for themselves, each other and the natural world through farm and garden-based programs.

Please join us for a farm fresh brunch celebrating the work we do.

Learn more and Register
… [Read More →]

2011 Eco-Farm Bus Tour visited Cesar Chavez Middle School in Watsonville, De LaVeaga School in Santa Cruz, The Life Lab Garden Classroom on the UCSC Farm, and Carmel River School in Carmel. Read about the schools

2010 Eco-Farm  Bus Tour rolled straight into a stormy day of downpours and tornado … [Read More →]

Food, What Director, Doron Comechero was one of four awarded the 2011 NEXTie awards for people … [Read More →]

Thanks to the 587 respondents of this survey and to UC Santa Cruz Senior Intern Gamai Gregory for taking on this project.

View survey summary prepared by UCSC Senior Intern … [Read More →]

“I remember being really small and not liking vegetables very much, but maybe I didn’t like them because I never had them,” Abel says. “It’s really important that low-income families and poor neighborhoods can have easily accessible organic food.” He … [Read More →]

Check out these resources for creative ideas.

This bike fork tool holder is part of  Life Lab's Creative Creations photo album which shows off reuse in the garden as well as … [Read More →]

Spring 2011 professional development workshops.

• Sowing the Seeds of Wonder: Discovering the Garden in Early Childhood Education – March 5, 2011. $150

• Plant It, Grow It, Eat It: Garden-Enhanced Nutrition Education – March 11, 2011. $150

• The Growing Classroom: An Introduction to Garden-Based Learning – March 31 – April 1, 2011. $300

Attend a workshop at our spectacular Garden Classroom in Santa Cruz, or have us … [Read More →]

The Youth Crew at Food, What?! mixes farming-based curriculum with personal, business, community and networking skills

Since 1979 Santa Cruz’s nonprofit Life Lab organization has built a fine boutique of garden-based curricula. Children around the country learn hands-on science in the fresh air of their school gardens. At the Garden Classroom at UC Santa Cruz, kids learn about nature, weather, and decomposition, while … [Read More →]

Life Lab’s Language Acquisition and Science Education in Rural Schools (LASERS)  program showed the positive links between language development and hands-on science using the Life Lab Science curriculum.

This theme was recently revisited by the National Gardening Associations Kidsgardening.com newsletter. View the newsletter to learn how educators use the garden to enhance English Language Learning.

Learn more about LASERS from these past posts:

• 1995 LASERS
• 2000 Monterey Bay Science