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Visit our new Garden Page for opportunities, resource manuals and more.
We are committed to providing opportunities for students and faculty alike to engage and learn from nature. The Office of Sustainability's Garden and Greenhouse Program oversees everything garden related in DPS. We support over 110 garden and outdoor classroom sites across the district. While the Office of Sustainability does not provide funding for school gardens, we happily share our expertise, connections with community partners, curriculum and opportunites for grants and fund raising.
The Denver Public School Garden Coalition is an alliance of the Department of Sustainability and local community partners and resources. The Garden Coalition Manual provides guidelines and resources for your school when determining your garden site, building the garden and seeing it into the future. The manual also outlines special opportunites such as Garden to Cafeteria and Youth Farm Stand programs.
The Denver Public Schools Garden and Sustainability Forum is our semi-annual event to connect educators and families with garden experts and resources. Workshops and trainings covering everything from nutrition and beekeeping to classroom cooking demos and starting a garden at your school ensure there are options for everyone.
We partner with DPS AceConnect to offer paid job skills development internships to students with IEP's through the Garden of Youth program.
Please contact us with any questions or celebrations related to your school garden. We love to see pictures of students engaging the garden, healthy food and the community!
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Spring Garden Workshops with Big Green
Big Green is hosting two workshops in Denver this May. Each will cover natural pest prevention in summer gardens, summer planting strategies, spring harvesting and how best to incorporate flowers into the Learning Gardens, and the Montbello one will also be covering garden mentorship programs and Montbello food system updates from guest speakers.
May 13 at Edgewater Elementary from 4:30-6, 5570 W. 42nd Ave. Edgewater, CO 80214
Register for the Edgewater Workshop Here
May 15 at Marie L. Greenwood in Montbello, also 4:30-6, 5130 Durham Ct. Denver, CO 80239
Register for the East Workshop here
Register again in the Professional Learning Catalog to receive credit for attending
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The Helping Kids Get Healthy educator workshop series is designed for classroom teachers, as well as volunteers, who support and facilitate youth education that has a garden component. The workshops will introduce educators to the Healthy Bodies, Healthy Gardens curriculum, which will be modeled throughout the series. During each workshop, the DUG education team will discuss how the school garden can be used as an educational tool to teach the 2020 Colorado Academic Standards. A portion of each workshop will cover best practices for outdoor classroom management. Attendees will learn how the garden is an extension of the classroom that can be used to encourage students to explore, ask questions and connect to the natural world around them.
- These workshops are for teachers, program managers and volunteers who support and facilitate youth education programs with a nutrition and/or garden component. Individuals who want to get more involved in teaching youth are also welcome to participate.
- Are you an employee of Denver Public Schools? If so, you can earn professional development credit for participating in a HKGH workshop! Please contact Mikhaela at mikhaela@dug.org to learn more about this opportunity.
- We are excited to announce that educators can earn 1 credit hour through the Colorado School of Mines Teacher Enhancement program for attending all HKGH workshops, as well as a Garden to Cafeteria and Youth Farm Stand training. To learn more about this opportunity, please contact Mikhaela at mikhaela@dug.org.
Register for all workshops at a discounted price of $125.
Step 1 : Register with DUG
Step 2 : Register with DPS Professional Learning
Sowing the Seeds of Knowledge
Join the DUG education team to learn best practices for outdoor classroom management; discuss ways to set up a garden space to facilitate student-led inquiry investigations in the garden; and we’ll guide you through the seed starting process in the classroom.
Saturday, March 9, 2019
10:00am – 1:30pm
$45Growing Learning Opportunities in the Garden
Although the school year is coming to a close, there is still plenty to do in the school garden. Join the DUG education team as we learn how the school garden is a living laboratory that brings STEAM standards to life! We’ll also overview summer garden maintenance to set your school garden up for a successful fall harvest with students.
Saturday, May 11, 2019
10:00am – 1:30pm
$45The School Garden Classroom
Welcome back to school! Join the DUG education team to learn about the power and purpose of garden and place-based education; how to develop a vision and plan for your school garden; and how to identify synergies between the school year and garden season. We will also introduce the Healthy Bodies, Healthy Gardens curriculum, which will be modeled throughout the HKGH workshop series, and discuss how the school garden can be used to teach the 2020 Colorado Academic Standards.
Saturday, September 28, 2019
10:00am – 1:30pm
$45Worm Composting in the Classroom
By November the garden is winding down, and we start to shift our focus to garden-related lessons in the indoor classroom. In this workshop, we walk you through the process of assembling and caring for a worm bin. Learn how to connect your worm bin to life cycle and decomposition lessons, and work with your students to create compost throughout the winter, which can be used in the springtime garden.
Saturday, November 2, 2019
10:00am – 12:00pm
$25
