Teachers at Farmington Woods Magnet Elementary created a garden where students study science, plant and harvest produce and share their harvest with a local food bank.

As an International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme magnet school, Farmington Woods provides students with global learning experiences that include action projects. The school’s international garden combines these elements seamlessly.

Teacher Lisa Hitesman worked with students in the preparation and planting of the continental themed garden beds throughout the spring. The Asian garden is a stir-fry bed with carrots, bok choy and snow peas; while the South American bed has all the ingredients needed for homemade salsa; and the North American salad bed has onions and many lettuce varieties.

Families join Hitesman and other teachers through the summer planting, weeding and harvesting produce that is donated to the Dorcas Crisis Center food bank.

Listen to Farmington Woods tends IB garden

This is a 5.5-minute mp3 file.

You can see photos of the teacher and students working in the garden at WCPSS Facebook

A new grant from PNC will help the Wake County Public School System strengthen pre-K programs and provide extra pre-K support for economically disadvantaged students.

The $500,000 grant shared among WCPSS, the Carolina Ballet, and the North Carolina Museum of Art is part of PNC’s Grow Up Great initiative. The three will partner together to create an innovative arts collaborative for Wake County’s youngest students.

The two-year initiative creates new programs in preschool teacher training and arts activities, provides preschool students and their families opportunities to visit the ballet and the art museum, and brings artists in to teach in preschool classrooms.

“The earlier you get a child engaged, the better prepared they will be to start their education journey,” Superintendent Tony Tata said. “Partnerships like the one with PNC help us get students started on the right path, so we can fulfill our promise of getting every student college and career ready by the time they graduate.”

The grant to WCPSS is part of a total of $1 million PNC has invested in communities in eastern North Carolina to help boost economic development and early childhood education.

The Holly Grove Middle Green Team Mob earned recognition and a cash prize from the N.C. Triangle Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council for building school and community awareness about conservation and recycling this year.

The school’s sixth graders had a chance to take part in a three-week enrichment class and become a member of the Green Team Mob. In the class and afterschool activities, the students participated in energy and water conservation, recycling and indoor air quality activities. They shared what they found with staff and students.

Listen to Holly Grove Green Team Mob teaches conservation

This is an 11.5-minute mp3 file.

Holly Grove Middle students display the check they earned from the Green Building Council for their conservation awareness campaign.

Seven Morrisville Elementary students earned honors at the Odyssey of the Mind 2012 World Finals held May 23 in Ames, Iowa.

The team from Morrisville Elementary earned top honors for the WCPSS schools earning third place among Division 1 teams that tackled problem 1: Ooh-Motional Vehicle. The problem required teams to design, build and drive a vehicle that traveled a course where it encountered three different situations and displayed a different human emotion at each encounter. The challenge emphasized the technical risk-taking and creativity of the vehicle’s engineering for travel and change of emotional appearance.

Listen to Morrisville Elementary students earn honors at Odyssey World Finals

This is a 9.5-minute mp3 file.

Photos from the competition are available on WCPSS Facebook.

School-Community News is a twice-monthly E-newsletter about news and issues of interest for Wake County Schools students, parents and anyone interested in public education. It is brief and easy to read, but also provides links to in-depth reports.

Here is the June 21 edition with information from the latest meeting of the school board, links to school board work session documents and news of the Rolesville Middle School ribbon cutting ceremony.

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