Welcome to GARDENStoLEARN, the online toolkit for early childhood teachers and educators. It provides resources and technical advice for creating inclusive educational gardens and training courses for early childhood teachers and school managers to develop basic, civic and transversal skills for the 3-6 age group.
| WHY? School gardens are spreading all over Europe, as natural places where children can enjoy regular contact with nature, discover the origin of their food, watch flowers and vegetables grow, experiment with natural growth, learn life skills such as responsibility, cooperation and self-confidence through achieving. |
| WHY NOT? The permanent exploration of school gardens is, however, often difficult to achieve due to several factors: unsuitable school location (land availability or contamination), difficult access to water, lack of funds, access and maintenance limitation during the school holidays, lack of specialized teachers or personnel for permanent and expert garden care besides pedagogical activities. |
| HOW? The GARDENStoLEARN learning platform aims to contribute addressing these challenges. It is composed of 3 different modules with a series of educational resources that can be downloaded. You will need to pass a test at the end of each module. |
MORE ABOUT THE ONLINE COURSE?
An introduction to educational gardens for early childhood
How to establish and sustain an educational garden
Step by step instructions, maintenance and management
How to design, develop and manage educational gardens
Inclusive educational practices
Theory on inclusion, hands-on workshops for early childhood and community
| Duration | The estimated workload is 75 hours. |
| Target audience | The course is designed for school leaders, pre-primary teachers and educators. The hands-on workshops of Module 3 are designed for children aged 3-6. Other stakeholders, including museums’ operators, local associations active in educational gardens, university students may also benefit from the course. |
| Certification | You will receive a course certificate upon completion of the full course (all the 3 modules). |
For more information, have a look at the FAQ
MORE ABOUT THE GARDENStoGROW INITIATIVE
GARDENStoLEARN has been created in the frame of the GARDENStoGROW project– Urban Horticulture for Innovative and Inclusive Early Childhood Education. It brings together 11 educational organizations across Europe: 2 children’s museums, 1 environmental foundation, 4 universities and research centers and 4 schools, and is implemented with the financial supportof the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.
The GARDENStoGROW project has been created because the improvement of education in the earliest stages of the child’s development can reduce disparities and inequalities at their roots, with a considerable socio-economic return in later years. The Commission has emphasized that “access to universally available, high quality inclusive Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) services is beneficial for all. It not only helps children to unlock their potential, but can also contribute to engaging parents and other family members with related measures to improve employment, job-related training, parent education, and after school activities” (Report of the Working Group on ECEC). The project encourages the adoption of innovative and inclusive pedagogical practices at pre- school level, based on urban and social horticulture.
GARDENStoGROW, a project co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union (2017-1-IT02-KA201-036449)
The European Commission’s support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/s
