Tule Elk Park School

The Garden

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Lynne Juarez’s belief inspired the creation of the Tule Elk Park Project, which took seven years to complete. The educators, donors, and builders, who spearheaded the park’s design, knew that children living in cities needed outdoor spaces to support their optimal growth and development. They saw the schoolyard as an untapped resource and realized the opportunity to address these growing problems:

 

• The increasing disconnection of children from the natural world;

• Diminishing educational and recreational resources for children, particularly those from low-income families;

• The importance of and need for early childhood education programs.

 

When you visit Tule Elk Park today, you will see children playing and learning in 20,000 square feet of green space complete with oak trees, redwood totem carvings, native plant and butterfly habitats, flowers, and their own vegetable and herb garden. The schoolyard and the garden comprise the outdoor classroom where children study science, math, literacy, and the visual arts in the dynamic structure of the natural world. Projects are designed to meet the interests of the children within the context of the environment that is revealing and renewing itself every day. These experiences are what influence the cognitive, physical, emotional, and social development of children and support their future success in school.

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With the San Francisco School Alliance as its fiscal agent, the project receives donations and grants that support the staff, the environmental education program, and park maintenance. Our contributors have maintained this important urban sanctuary where children can discover themselves in nature. As a founding member of the San Francisco Green Schoolyard Alliance, we are committed to the educational and personal success of children and encourage you to learn more about the importance of nature in their lives.

 

Gardening at Tule Elk Park

 

Many of our students start the garden program intimidated by bugs and dirt. But not for long! By the time they graduate from Tule Elk Park, they are completely engaged with the natural world: knowing how to plant vegetable seeds, how delicious beans right off the vine taste, where to find a worm, how to gently handle a roly-poly, and most of all, how to find joy and solace in the natural world!

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Tule Elk Park has a vegetable garden nestled in a beautiful landscape of trees, native plants, pollinator plants, winding bicycle paths, and a grassy amphitheater. The garden program has been in existence since 1997. Former site director Lynne Juarez re-envisioned the asphalt playground, and over the course of five years, the grounds were transformed to a lush green space.

 

Our students come primarily from dense urban neighborhoods in San Francisco with little or no access to green spaces. But once at Tule Elk Park, they have the daily opportunity for hands-on experiences with the natural world. Our garden is a natural laboratory, equipped with magnifying glasses, binoculars, rulers, pencils, paper, and other materials to facilitate the children’s developing inquiry and academic skills.

 

 

Sharing the Knowledge – Outreach!

 

In September 2011, Tule Elk was proud to be on the green schools tour for Engaging our Grounds: The 2011 International Green Schoolyard Conference.

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Since its inception, Tule Elk Park’s mission has included sharing its experiences with the broader teaching community and helping others expand the opportunities for low-income urban children to experience a green schoolyard. The San Francisco Green Schoolyard Alliance was spearheaded by Tule Elk Park in 2001. We host visitors throughout the year and from across the world, interested in developing gardens at their schools and coming to Tule Elk Park for inspiration. Please contact our school office if you would like to visit our garden.

 

Two recent books include the wealth of knowledge developed at Tule Elk Park: How to Grow a School Garden by Arden Bucklin-Sporer and Rachel K. Pringle, 2010 and Asphalt to Ecosystems: Design Ideas for Schoolyard Transformation by Sharon Danks.

 

In 2010, Tule Elk was a host school for the 2010 Growing Green School Grounds Conference in which seven workshops were taught at our site, including one by our former Garden Educator.

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The History of Greening Our School Yard

 

In 1992, a teacher’s request to plant a vegetable garden in a small strip of dirt grew into a vision to “green” the entire schoolyard. Site Manager Lynne Juarez (now retired) brought together a small group of teachers and community members to start planning and dreaming. Over the course of five years, and in three phases, 20,000 square feet of asphalt were transformed into a park with a grove of trees, butterfly habitat, native plants, a vegetable garden, and a grassy amphitheater. The creation of the park, finished in 1997, involved parents, community leaders, staff, philanthropists, and many others, providing private donations, in-kind gifts, thousands of hours, and unwavering faith!

 

Formerly called the Yerba Buena Children’s Center, the new green school was renamed Tule Elk Park Child Development Center in 1997. In 2011, it was renamed an Early Education School rather than a CDC.