For Teachers

There are several organizations that encourage pollinator gardens in schools.

The U.S FISH & WILDLIFE SERVICE provides educational materials and lesson plans for different grade levels that focus on the Monarch butterfly and other pollinators.

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 offers two programs:

  1. A free Pollinator 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. The cost is $1 shipping if you request your seeds online but you can also request them by mail free of charge.
  2. A fundraising program: you can either purchase seeds to sell in order to raise money for school projects/materials or you can get seeds for free and sell them to raise money for Save our Monarchs.

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.

*The Wild Ones program is currently unavailable due to COVID but will be accepting applications in 2021.

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.

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.