Lanark County Community Justice's BE STRONG Program partners

with UCDSB's Rural Elementary School's Outdoor Classroom Design process.

Garden Classrooms and Restorative Practices on the Elementary School Playground

“The Garden is a master teacher of responsibility and decision making. In taking responsibility for a living, growing ecosystem that will endure beyond a single class, students begin to co-create their outdoor classroom. In this way, garden-based learning goes beyond general experiential learning as it takes place in a purposeful, ever-changing environment.”Canadian Organic Growers, Growing Up Organic Toolkit

The restorative partnership between Maple Grove Elementary School, the Upper Canada District School Board (UCDSB), and Lanark County Community Justice (LCCJ) through the BE STRONG program, Building, Encouraging and Supporting Trusting Relationships on Neutral Ground, has inspired a collaborative Restorative Circle Garden project.

This initiative brings together teachers, students K to 6, school administration, and LCCJ Circle Facilitators for a full day of shared learning. Participants gather in a Knowledge Sharing Circle, passing the talking piece to exchange ideas on restorative garden design and to build community through dialogue.

The Knowledge Sharing Circle is both a restorative practice and a pedagogical approach that fosters a safe and inclusive space for curriculum exchange or conflict resolution. It supports an emotionally intelligent, cognitively aware, and caring culture in both indoor and outdoor learning environments. With a Restorative Circle Garden, teachers and students can step outside to practice restorative conversations when conflict arises or to engage in appreciation circles, storytelling, music, and art within the garden.

As spring arrives, students and teachers eagerly work with soil and seeds in the warm, south facing windows of their classrooms. Like Maple Grove, Drummond Central Public School is also entering the planting season. Students and teachers are enthusiastic about starting seedlings within a meaningful experiential learning environment. Drummond Central has used the Knowledge Sharing Circle as a core routine in its Outdoor Education program since September 2017.

Once seeds and transplants are established, both schools plan to implement a hands on, garden based learning program. This approach supports students in developing understanding in food literacy, ecology, science, mathematics, ecoliteracy, physical education, and social studies. Garden classrooms create the possibility of embedding multiple curriculum strands into a dedicated Learning Outside the Classroom subject.

LCCJ circle facilitators will also work with Maple Grove’s Earth Stewards, engaging them in garden based circle discussions about how we can positively impact our communities, society, and environment. Through garden based classrooms and restorative practices, we nurture a culture of care for one another, for our food, for our health, for our youth, and for the natural world.