Peace Projects 2023
The P.E.A.C.E Projects is an initiative to sponsor and mentor early childhood educators, in promoting Peace Education for young children in the classroom.
By Gloria Valentin-Denson
The Children’s Garden, Hyde Park, MA
The Peace grant has inspired growth in my program. The goal was to create a “mud kitchen”, but it allowed growing within myself. My goal was for children to learn more about gardening and nurturing appreciation of mother earth in various ways.
In my quest to learn and support the children in my program, I applied to the Trustees’ Master Urban Gardener program and was accepted. While in this program, I learned about soil health, seasonal planting, native plants, and so much more; all skills applicable to use in my program.
This spring I applied for a raised bed through the Food Project, to be installed in June. The raised bed will aid as an extension of our gardening and planting learning. The children have been engaged in the stages of seeds to plants and will add seedlings to our classroom raised bed.
On May 6th, I attended the Bloom in Boston conference to forward my learning in outdoor classroom learning and encouraging children to explore gardening and learning in outdoor spaces. This learning will also tie into our program learning and exploration.
Installation and materials of our space have taken some time, but I’m grateful we were able to support a local carpenter to create a sensory mud kitchen for us. We are looking forward to what our summer learning yields thanks to this grant.
We are thankful for this chance to extend our learning in ways of gardening, appreciation of the earth, and connection to land and each other.
