Environmental Literacy

In the spring of 2012, the Lerner School embarked on an environmental literacy program as part of the Science Curriculum. Since that humble beginning it has became much more.

Today this curriculum is a vehicle for students to understand their relationship and responsibility to the Earth, providing them with meaningful, hands-on opportunities to explore the natural world, investigate growing cycles, habitats, composting, and harvesting.

Our students are learning to see themselves as, in the words of our sage, Shomrei Adama, true Stewards of the Earth. We invite you to explore the integration of our Environmental Literacy Program and Compassion Project with both the General and Judaic Studies curricular strands.

Our Environmental Literacy program demonstrates our commitment to bringing Jewish values to life both in
and out of the classroom. 

5th Grade students act as tour guides, introducing our Preschool children to the school’s gardens, plant beds, and green house.

4th Grade students start and care for plants in the green house, getting them ready to be transplanted in one our many nature beds.

3rd Grade students have class meetings and poetry recitations in the outside classroom.

2nd Grade students harvest vegetables from our gardens and provide food for families in need at Jewish Family Services.

1st Grade and Kindergarten students plant, weed, and harvest the garden, taking time each day to observe and record changes in an observation notebook.

Kindergarten students care for the school grounds, picking up litter, watering, weeding, and harvesting the food that we grow.

Preschoolers focus on sensory explorations and caring for the earth. The children tend to their playground garden, caring for parsley planted in milk cartons which they’ll harvest for their Passover seder. They learn how worms aid the growing process, how to repurpose materials from the classroom, and how to make bird feeders for Shabbat Shira.

Lerner students identify trees on our property, and label native and non-native species.

Preschoolers focus on sensory explorations and caring for the earth. The children tend to their playground garden, caring for parsley planted in milk cartons which they’ll harvest for their Passover seder. They learn how worms aid the growing process, how to repurpose materials from the classroom, and how to make bird feeders for Shabbat Shira.

Lerner students identify trees on our property, and label native and non-native species.