Iowa Kids Garden Day

Sara Lockie on June 2, 2025

Across the state nearly 35,000 kids celebrated the first annual Iowa Kids Garden Day, hosted by 100+ locations! At Next Step Adventure, we have been organizing and coordinating this work for almost two years, and it was gratifying to see it all come together.

My favorite story was when I visited a celebration at Irving Elementary in Waterloo. A boy planted a row of bean seeds and was asked to water them using a small pail of water. The boy was quite hesitant exclaiming, “I have no experience with this! I’ve never watered anything in real life, just in games on my phone!” A minute later, he successfully poured water over the seeds. 

Iowa Kids Garden Day celebrates children and educators growing and eating delicious food. This annual statewide celebration is coordinated by the Iowa Farm to School & Early Care Coalition.  Join us next year on Wednesday, May 20, 2026 by visiting https://www.iowafarmtoschoolearlycare.org/iowa-kids-garden-day

Iowa Kids Garden Day

Sara Lockie on March 10, 2025

We’ve been working on this for months, and we finally get to share it with everyone – Iowa Kids Garden Day registration is open here!

Wednesday, May 21st, 2025 (or anytime in May!)

Save the date for Wednesday, May 21, 2025, and celebrate Iowa Kids Garden Day! School and ECEs are encouraged to host an event, joining with others across the state to celebrate children and educators growing and eating delicious food.

???? Date: Wednesday, May 21, 2025
???? Location: Schools, early care centers, and community organizations across Iowa
???? Activity: Planting or caring for a garden

Questions? Email [email protected] 

Growing Together

Sara Lockie on January 29, 2025

At our core, we believe in the power of growing together—whether that’s through planting seeds, cultivating relationships, or creating lasting change within our communities. That’s why we are so excited about our work with the Iowa Farm to School & Early Care Coalition, a collaborative effort that has been laying the groundwork for a healthier, more sustainable future for Iowa’s children.

The Iowa Farm to School & Early Care Coalition brings together schools, early care programs, farmers, government agencies, and community partners to foster connections between local food systems and young learners. The work we do helps to strengthen these partnerships, encouraging kids to explore where their food comes from, build healthy eating habits, and understand the importance of sustainable agriculture.

For many months, we have been working behind the scenes to coordinate a new statewide event in partnership with the coalition. On Wednesday, May 21, we will celebrate the first annual Iowa Kids Garden Day—an exciting event that will bring Iowa’s children, educators, and farmers together to celebrate the joy of gardening, fresh food, and learning.

Sites are asked to register to put their site on the map. Registration will open on March 5th, 2025 for schools, early care sites, and community organizations.  At each site, coordinators will organize a variety of gardening activities for children and educators.

Iowa Kids Garden Day Every is an annual celebration occurring on the third Wednesday of May.  Join us in bringing recognition to the people and programs providing these innovative, hands-on learning opportunities. Learn more about hosting a site in your community!

Teachers Going Green curriculum is here!

Martha McCormick on November 14, 2024

Last month Ashley M and I enjoyed a lunch meeting at the Trellis Cafe at the Des Moines Botanical Garden with Stephanie Harrington, Natural Resources Program Coordinator with ISU Extension, Polk County. Stephanie trains ISU Master Gardeners to work with school gardens. She does lots of other stuff as well.

She’s been looking for the Teachers Going Green curriculum for a couple years. And she’s had requests from teachers. The lessons haven’t been available for several years, but NOW THEY ARE!

And they are even better than they were before. Ashley updated them to a format similar to the lessons Sara developed for Waukee Schools a couple years ago. Those lessons empower teachers to use their extensive school gardens to teach the science curriculum.

Kids can learn science concepts experientially, while they’re getting outdoors, and learning about healthy food.

Since we developed the first Teachers Going Green lessons in 2009, the Iowa Core was changed to become the Iowa Academic Standards. Ashley combed through the standards and existing lessons to make sure they align.

She also reviewed and evaluated the lessons we’re now making available to you, for quality and clarity. We’re proud to say they come up to the standards you’ve come to expect from Next Step Adventure.

Eating Asparagus

Teachers Going Green lessons for Kindergarten through 5th Grade are available for you to download HERE, free of charge. They are organized by the subject their Academic Standards align with–

  • 21st Century Skills
  • English Language Arts (ELA)
  • Math
  • Science
  • Social Studies

We’re excited to offer this new resource to you for your classrooms and other programs. Please take the opportunity to share it with your colleagues and friends. And let us know how you’re using it, and how it works.

Celebrate the Farm to School Movement

Martha McCormick on October 10, 2024

Kids and dirt go together, well like dirt on kids. These two kiddos are collecting roly polies in our raised bed garden. June has worked these beds since before she was one, but now she’s six, and her interest in gardening is overshadowed by dance, first grade, and playing pretend. Still, yesterday, she picked a Jimmy Nardello pepper and ate it all up. When kids grow their own food, they’ll eat it!

Making a Pill Bug Zoo in the garden

This is our very October garden with compost cage, volunteer pumpkin and squash. We still have potatoes and carrots to harvest. But our garden is only my personal part of Next Step’s contribution to the Farm to School movement. And the movement has really picked up steam in Iowa over the last several years. Next Step developed Teachers Going Green beginning in 2009 to help teachers connect gardening with the Iowa Academic Standards.

Since then we’ve worked with local schools in Des Moines, Waukee and Iowa City to name a few. Our focus is on the education–We developed School Garden 101, also for Keep Iowa Beautiful. We plan to make the Teachers Going Green lessons available on our website in the near future, with some updates to reflect changes to the Education Standards.

Sara Lockie and the rest of the team train teachers and other youth professionals to work with kids in the garden. One important thing to remember is that it’s not about the plants. It’s about the kids.

But we’ve branched out from developing activities and lessons to coordinating Iowa State University’s Farm to School & Early Child Care coalition statewide. These efforts will expand the Farm to School movement far beyond the reach of Next Step Adventure alone. This year they’ve set goals to develop resources and better access to already existing curriculum.

So join us in celebrating Farm to School month by listening to this podcast from the National Center for Appropriate Technology, imagining how YOU can help connect with local food, and have fun doing it.

Eating Asparagus
Eating Asparagus
June and Hazel on the mulch pile at Sprouts Garden, Drake University
Sprouts Garden
Building a worm composting bin at Food Corps training at ISU Extension
Compost with Worms
October garden
Seedlings started indoors
Seedlings started indoors
Bean plants in a clear cup. Roots can be viewed through the cup.
Bean plants in a clear cup. Roots can be viewed through the cup.
Deep Roots Garden Sign
Community garden
Food Corps garden training at ISU Extension
Garden training
Food Corps garden training at ISU Extension
Teachers + Dirt = Fun
Making a Pill Bug Zoo in the garden
Roly Poly Daycare
Planting early veggies in our raised beds
Watering the seeds
Daren Leading Name Wave
Earth Hero Daren Leading Name Wave
World of Difference Girls
World of Difference Girls
Preparing guacamole
Guacamole
Practical Farmers Retreat at the end of the Mergers challenge
Practical Farmers Team Building Day

We Can All Be Citizen Scientists

Sara Lockie on August 28, 2024

Scientists need data. People can collect data. With a little piece of technology in our pockets, we can easily and efficiently transport that data to scientists around the world. Tada – we can all be citizen scientists!

Community Food Systems + Farm to School and Early Care Conference 2024

Dan Zimmerman on June 29, 2024

The 2024 Community Food Systems + Farm to School & Early Care Conference was held in June and included educational Farm tours the day before the conference.  

The Johnson County Historical Poor Farm visit combined the history of the Historical Poor Farm with how the land is used today: 

  • Community plots through Global Food Project
  • GROW: Johnson County to supply local food banks with fresh produce
  • Maintaining the land by removing invasive species and restoring native landscapes that help clean the water as it works its way to streams
  • Education on farming and the historical usage of the Historical Poor Farm 

Camp Creek Farm in Kalona, IA showed us:

  • The hard work of starting up a farm in fields that had been unused recently
  • Existing infrastructure for long term micro green production
  • Creating compost to use in the fields from yard waste and farm waste
  • The variety of produce that consumers expect from Consumer Supported Agriculture and farmer’s markets

Camp Creek Farm is creating connections not only through farming and local food hub distribution but sharing greenhouse and storage space with other local farmers.

While the farm visits reminded me of the hard work it takes to grow the food we eat everyday, the conference opened my eyes to the barriers that prevent fresh, local food from being available to schools and early care sites everyday.  Timing of when crops are ready in the fields and when children are in the classroom.  Funding and sourcing enough food for an entire school or district.  Budgets and time for the people needed to prepare the food.  And kids’ tastes, what will they actually eat from year to year?  I learned about established and well run programs in place or starting up that help fund fresh local food.  The conference brought together educators, food service workers, chefs and local farmers to further understand the systems already in place, uncover challenges and create connections to keep pushing forward to get fresh, local food into school and early care sites that kids will eat.  The  kindness, connections, collaboration and education that I experienced at the conference has me energized to continue the adventure!

Johnson County Historical Poor Farm
Camp Creek Farm
Camp Creek Farm
Johnson County Historical Poor Farm

Just breathe

Martha McCormick on December 12, 2023

What comes to mind when you hear the word “breath?” Do you have a memory of getting the wind knocked out of you when you did a belly flop in the pool? Or holding your breath when you were scared? Do you hear the words “I can’t breathe” that have become a mantra of the Black Lives Matter movement?

The conversation

Last night Shakti Yoga students gathered at Gateway Market for a conversation about breath. There were 11 of us around the table. I started off by asking everyone to write down what they think of when they hear the word “breath.” The answers were diverse, but most common was “life.”

Sandy Gustafson reported on what she’s learned during the months since we decided on the topic. Here are links to some of the resources she shared with us last night.

Some resources

Dr. Sundar Balasubramanian’s website melds ancient breathing practices with modern science, and offers breathwork for improving your life.

Andrew Huberman, a Stanford professor, offers a number of resources on how to breathe better, including this YouTube episode.

Keep your mouth shut

When Joseph Schneider told me I breathe through my mouth a lot, I was horrified! And in denial. But then I paid closer attention to my breathing while I practiced yoga. I had to admit that yes, I was breathing through my mouth. A lot. Then he loaned me this book, with a sticky note marking the chapter on mouth breathing.

I swear reading this chapter kept me awake for two nights, and sent me in search of medical tape to keep my mouth closed when I sleep. Keeping your mouth closed can help with snoring and sleep apnea! Who knew?

Something we take for granted, do from the moment we’re born to the moment we die, is way more complicated than I ever knew.

There’s always more

I tend to think of things like breath in broad strokes. Brette Scott offers a monthly “Energy Tuneup” at Shakti that focuses mostly on the breath. It’s really quite interesting and the sessions I’ve attended definitely shifted my energy.

This photo reminds me of the yoga pose Tadasana, or Mountain Pose. It can be rigid and stiff, or there can be a lot going on inside, including deep, controlled breathing.

Lisa Acheson shared a lightbulb moment when she learned she needed to soften her very focused breath. Working on it too hard had become detrimental to her body. Just like anything, finding the middle is a lifelong project. Breathing deep, softening, moderating, relaxing–all practices for life.

I came to a deeper understanding that the subject of breath is broad, but also particular, and integral to everyone’s life. Well, duh.

These conversations always remind me that there’s still so much to learn, and I can still improve my life and health even as I age. It’s not just good for our bodies but also our brains to learn and think about stuff in different ways.

Using my breath to come back to my body and link it up to my mind is an important part of my mindfulness practice.

Farm to School Science Lessons

Sara Lockie on October 31, 2023

We are often asked, “How do we bring Farm to School teaching into our classrooms?” There are barriers. Time is short. Teachers are stretched. There is no “free time” in the day to add something extra.

Fortunately, Farm to School is not an extra. There are countless ways to integrate it into the existing framework. We know student learning increases when activities are hands-on, engaging, and meaningful. Farm to School activities do this.

Working with Waukee Community School District, we developed science lessons that meet the curriculum goals of the Iowa Academic Standards through Farm to School activities. Each grade level folder contains lessons and supplemental materials including:

  • Hands-on science lessons
  • Instructions for growing food in the classroom
  • Lessons for academic learning in the garden
  • Book lists
  • Cross-curricular connections
  • Taste-testing guidelines

All lessons are aligned to Next Generation Science Standards, as well as the Waukee School District’s progress report statements. Material lists, learning goals, actions steps, reflection questions, hand-outs, and seasonal recommendations are included.

We invite you to access the materials, try them out in your classroom, and let us know what you think. What worked well for you? What suggestions do you have?

Farm to School Lessons
Kindergarten Lessons
1st grade
2nd grade
3rd grade
4th grade
5th grade

We are proud of our work and thankful to partner with Waukee Schools, a Farm to School leader.

Drawing of how carrots grow
Bean plants in a clear cup. Roots can be viewed through the cup.
Seedlings started indoors
Sweet potato slips
Asparagus eater
Green onions grown in a cup of water
June with a tiny ear of corn

A Mindful Spring

Martha McCormick on May 5, 2023

I’ve been determined to really pay attention to spring this year, and to share it with some folks who seem to have an easier time being mindful than most.