For Teachers

There are several organizations that encourage pollinator gardens and veggie gardens in schools:

POLLINATOR GARDENS:

POLLINATOR PARTNERSHIP has a Bee smart Kit for sale which includes lesson plans, materials, posters and more. You can purchase a Binder Curriculum ($175) or a digital curriculum ($85). A portion of these prices are tax deductible. The site also has several fun activities like printable crosswords and wordsearch puzzles related to pollinators.

SAVE OUR MONARCHS has a School Classroom Program: when you sign up you will receive a seed mix containing a mix of wildflowers, annuals and perennials to ideally plant in a 10′ x 10′ plot on school grounds. You will also receive 25 individual seed pouches to distribute to a class. The cost is $25.

WILD ONES offers a small grant of $100-$500 for projects involving “native plants and seeds for outdoor learning areas that engage children, preschool to high school.” Applications are available in July and the deadline for applying is October 15.

NYS DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION has a School Seedling Program that provides free tree saplings and shrubs. All NYS schools and youth based organizations are eligible to apply between January 4th and March 31st. Click the link to get more information.

REWILD LONG ISLAND COMMUNITY GARDENS PROGRAM (local to Long Island, NY): Schools can apply to receive resources to install a pollinator garden. Successful applicants receive professional garden design/installation consulting, plants, irrigation, signage, on-site maintenance and weeding advice, as well as help in growing community involvement. For more information, email Gardens-Leads@ReWildLongIsland.org

VEGETABLE GARDENS:

USDA SNAP-ed has many links to lesson plans and handouts related to growing vegetables.

KIDSGARDENING.ORG offers several grants for garden projects (link) and to free lesson plans (link).

FOOD HERO-GROWING HEALTHY KIDS: has a free garden themed nutrition curriculum.

I will continue to update this page with more resources as I find them. It is so important to teach children about gardening, pollinators, and conservation, and I am on a mission to help kids learn this as early as possible so they can make good choices as they grow. I am a certified Pollinator Champion and I am available to give zoom presentations about pollinators. Please use the contact form in the ‘Contact’ section to get in touch with me.