Learning Garden

Learning Garden

The Learning Garden is a living laboratory where students explore the natural world. With an Environmental Science focus, students learn to understand the earth’s physical and geological processes while caring for the plants and creatures who share Park Day School’s four-acres of land. 

The Learning Garden educates students about natural resource management, how climate change affects systems and processes on earth, land rights and large scale land use, and teaches agricultural and culinary skills. 

Kindergarten Spotlight

1st Grade Spotlight

4th Grade Spotlight

5th Grade Spotlight

In Lower School, lessons in our expansive garden campus encourage students to become stewards of the environment and the keepers of its history. Classes incorporate curriculum from LifeLab, Occidental Art and Ecology Center, FOSS, and Edible Schoolyard. The program is closely integrated with science and social studies curriculum and adapts to emerging student interests in collaboration with each grade’s classroom teachers.

In Middle School, students participate in Ecology Club and take on full management of our Seed to Table program that provides fresh produce to the school’s hot lunch program. An important part of this work is the intersection between social justice and access to food, and studies around this (including aquaponics systems) integrates into the Middle School science program and JEDI program as well. Our biophilia collaboration between Spanish and gardening is where students learn to care for plants in Spanish and in English, working with design elements to create personalized ecosystems.