Spring is spectacular at Langley Elementary! Langley students now have beautiful raised beds full of growing food to enrich their FoodPrints lessons.

During a typical FoodPrints class, kids receive a short lesson from their FoodPrints teacher and engage in a hands-on food-preparation activity, followed by a tasting! After the snack, the FoodPrints teacher takes the students outside to the school garden for another hands-on lesson on growing food. 

A HUGE thank you to all the people who came out on this cold and blustery Saturday, to help prepare our space for construction. We accomplished even more than I'd hoped! Here's what happens next:

April 15th: Love & Carrots will come install nine of our raised beds
April 16th, 10 AM: Volunteer day! Help us shovel compost into the raised beds
April 17th: Love & Carrots will come back to install the irrigation system

We hope that the project will really get rolling then, with additional raised beds, trellises, a natural playspace and an outdoor classroom coming next. Thank you, school family, for all your love and support!

Dawn
Garden and Wellness Committee Chair

Langley tiger families, families of prospective students and dear neighbors,

I'm excited to announce that we have scheduled Phase I of our new garden build!
Thanks to the hard work of our community members, and to the generous support of our donors, we will be able to install our first nine raised beds on Monday, April 15. 

We are in the process of securing funding for Phase II, which will include a walkway, a natural play space and more raised beds.

In the meantime, we need volunteers who are capable of strenuous work to join us for two upcoming dates:

Saturday, March 23, 9:30-noon
This Saturday will be our last chance to clean up and level the ground in preparation for our garden beds. I'm reaching out to the city to borrow wheelbarrows - if you have one, let me know! Bring your kids if you'd like and we can take turns watching them in the ECE playground.

Tuesday, April 16, 10 am until it's done
Our beautiful cedar beds will be installed and our compost delivered - but we have to fill them up! It's important this be done in one day, so our irrigation system can be installed on Wednesday. 

​Thank you!

Dawn
Garden and Wellness Committee

While Langley students throughout the school were churning concepts and making discoveries Friday morning, second-graders  in the science lab were churning butter and making waffles.

Foodprints teacher, Sarah Gaudreau, walked down the hall to fetch the children from their homeroom. When the kids realized it was their day to participate in the special gardening and cooking program, a  cheer rose up from the group. Because, yes, second breakfast! Nothing wrong with that. But also, hands-on learning, making messes, working together and accomplishing a big goal - delicious food for everyone. 

The kids were divided into several groups and each given a different task: some ground wheatberries into a fine flour, others shook jars of heavy cream to make butter. A group of children  used kid-safe knives to cut up apples for a sweet compote, as another composed a few sentences describing what they know about butter; what does it look like, where does it come from, what is it used for? "It looks like a rectangle!" one shouted out, "We get it at Wal-Mart," said another. "Write it down," replied educational aide Ronnie Johnson. 

The flurry of excitement throughout the room was also packed with learning opportunities. Math was done as ingredients were measured out. Chemistry was observed as those ingredients were combined and heated. Kids debated the efficiency of a low-tech antique mixer verses an electric one.

A group of determined Langley parents, staff and community volunteers spent a muddy Saturday clearing out the garden in front of the school. Friendship and kid-baked pumpkin bread made an ambitious project manageable, and after a few hours we saw great progress. Only the safety enclosure for our hibernating rescue turtle was left standing.

Why?

As little kids grow and develop, so do schools. We’ve welcomed more students, growing to three PK-3 classrooms and a larger total enrollment. Conscious Discipline is in its second year, and our partnership with FRESHFARM’s Foodprints is teaching gardening, cooking and nutrition to more and more kids. The rooftop beehives, the butterfly garden, the little turtle and flourishing plants - all these things bring our children learning and joy. And with your support, the PTSA has grown from a dogged startup to a small but fierce Tiger parent organization. All of this has been made possible with the support of our community—volunteers, neighborhood businesses, generous donors, and everyone who wishes us well.

We couldn’t be prouder of Langley’s growth! But we have a challenge this year. The garden needs a full overhaul to accommodate our growing school and our ambitious plans. We’re hoping to install permanent seating for an outdoor classroom so classes can easily gather and learn in the space. It’s important to have accessible garden beds and pavers between them so that we can welcome all of our children, parents and grandparents, even those with limited mobility or wheelchairs. The garden will need an irrigation system so it can be managed efficiently and we’d love to have a space where we can host chickens too.

A garden should be built to last, and all of these things have a cost. We have set a fundraising goal of $20,000--- several times more than the PTA has raised in any previous year. Grant applications are underway, and we’ll have a Parents Night Out at Spark on January 11th as a general fundraiser. Please come! But we’re also asking you to consider us in your year-end giving. The PTSA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and would be thrilled to receive your donations. We use PayPal at LangleyPTApayments@gmail.com, receive mail at 101 T St. NE, and can make other arrangements for your convenience.

A thriving neighborhood school is possible only with your support. Thank you so much for believing in us and sharing our dream for an inclusive and effective learning garden!