Write these commandments that I’ve given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street, talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night.
DEUTERONOMY 6: 6-8

In many communities around the country people are joining together to garden in publicly provided land or simply adopting a vacant lot. The gardeners may plant vegetables to improve the quality of fresh vegetables for their families or, in the case of a vacant lot, simply beautify the neighborhood with seasonal flowers. A growing part of the community garden movement involves the gardeners planting an extra row to donate to a food bank or homeless shelter in the community. To learn about gardening opportunities in your town use your favorite browser to search for “community gardens” followed by your town or city name. To learn more about the topic, visit the website kinderGARDEN.

By Tamara Waters  

Most kids, when asked, will say that Easter is a holiday with a bunny who hides eggs. Stores are decked out with plastic eggs, baskets, and bunnies every year reinforcing the secular side of Easter. Easter is something much more, though. It is a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So, how can a parent or grandparent teach the special kids in their lives about the true meaning of Easter...Read more

By Shirley Carlson

Create bingo cards (one per player) with 16 squares [four rows of four] on each card.  With your children, decide on 16 symbols *(or more) that help tell the story of Easter. Draw a representation of each symbol in a different square on the card.  Young children may need help making their own cards.  Be sure everyone draws the symbols in a different order than the other players.  Use 16 index cards and draw one symbol per card.  These cards will become the draw pile to determine what symbol is called. 

Possible symbols might include: cross, donkey, palm branch, loaf of bread, chalice of wine, crown of thorns, large boulder at tomb, spear, butterfly, silver coins, garden, three crosses, whip, foot washing, hands in prayer, lamb. 

Choose a caller to draw a card from the pile. Players put a marker on the same symbol on their card when it is called.  Markers could be jelly beans or fish crackers---something fun to eat when you are done.  When someone gets a “bingo”, they shout “Alleluia!” or “Happy Easter!”  Take time as you create and play the game to discuss the Easter story.

*Option:  You may be able to think of more symbols, or just add some different colored eggs to the mix so that you have more than 16 symbols.  Just be sure you have the same number of cards in your pile as you have symbols or colored eggs on the cards. 

by Sarah J. Hale

There is no impossibility to him who stands prepared to conquer every hazard.
The fearful are the failing.

Mother Jones magazine (March 2009) describes how green growers in Oregon and California are taking advantage of "backyard farms." We leave it to the creativity of our readers to figure out what applications these ideas might have in your own programs....

"Unable to find an affordable spot to start an organic farm in Oregon, Donna Smith launched Your Backyard Farmer and now tills 47 plots in Portland. Clients pay her $1,575 a year to plant and tend home gardens that yield enough organic produce for three. Meanwhile, in Oakland and San Francisco, Forage Oakland and MyFarm help their members share their backyard harvests with one another. MyFarms's Chris Burley envisions a food chain where produce travels just '20 feet from farm to fork.'"

There have been changes in the economy and a shift in suburbization that have caused many inner city areas to become downtrodden. Some of the residential areas have given rise to a growing number of poor single parent families that are living amidst high rates of violence, and drugs. The opportunities for resources in these neighborhoods are limited, but many neighborhood residents are coming together to form coalitions to better their neighborhoods and their lives. Many neighborhood groups are forming community gardens in vacant lots, or even on rooftops. These community gardens are a great way to get both children and adults involved in beautifying the neighborhood community while working with nature...Read more

Recycling with kids is a great way to develop awareness and understanding for our environment. Teaching kids to recycle builds a respect for the local environment today’s society needs so desperately...Read more

By Shirley Carlson

Supplies:

1. 50 (or more) paper plates, inexpensive type and recyclable
2. Markers    
3. Dice or spinner

Prior to playing the game, have a family discussion about reducing, reusing, and recycling and the ways these things help our environment.  Read a book together that talks about the environment.  [See book list in this newsletter.]...Read more

• All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew
  
  
• Before and After Easter: Activities and Ideas for Lent to Pentecost by Debbie Trafton O'Neal and David Larochelle
  
  
• Earth Gospel – A Guide to Prayer for God’s Creation by Sam Hamilton-Poole
  
  
• Lasagna Gardening: A New Layering System for Bountiful Gardens: No Digging, No Tilling, No Weeding, No Kidding! by Patricia Lanza
  
  
• Living Lent: Meditations for These Forty Days by Barbara Cawthorne Crafton
  
  
• Sacred Space for Lent 2009
  
  
• Square Foot Gardening: A New Way to Garden in Less Space with Less Work by Mel Bartholomew
  
  
• The Everything Green Classroom Book: From recycling to conservation, all you need to create an eco-friendly learning environment by Tessa Hill
  
  
• The Shack by William P. Young
  
  
• Trowel and Error: Over 700 Tips, Remedies and Shortcuts for the Gardener by Sharon Lovejoy
  
  
• Wisdom for the Easter Journey by Douglas Connelly
  

• The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
  
  
• The Very First Easter by Paul Maier
  
  
• The Tale of Three Trees by Angela Elwell Hunt...Read more