Get to know our garden oasis school through photos.
We envision the outdoor space as a mix of native plants, play space, herbs garden, gathering space, vegetable garden, art gallery and more. We started with second hand cable reels as tables, container plants and compost before children place their mark.
Garden Design
A wispy palm basks in the sunshine. Plants are another member of the school community at bia obi. We learn geometry, shapes, history, science and much more from plants through relationship. We watch and listen to how they grow and change as an opportunity to strengthen empathy, observational awareness, critical consciousness of the climate catastrophe and realistic steps that young children can take to reduce human-caused harm.
Plant life and Land Based Pedagogy
Everyday activities
Children build a vase of flowers or examine tree life as opportunities to observe life in color and wonder about plants feel about change. Singular activities can become longer inquiries that strengthen compare/contrast skills, refine motor coordination, and build number sense.
This first picture of the koru (loop or coil in Māori) informs our pedagogy and curriculum. We draw on Maori perspectives from Aotearoa/New Zealand in an early learning curriculum called Te Whariki (2017) which envisions children as competent and confident learners. This is one of the few national curricula in the world based in Indigenous perspectives and was adopted by the Ministry of Education. The koru is pictured with a local New Orleans fern to show the plant connections.
