Garden & Animals
At Desert Marigold School, our garden and animals are integral to our curriculum. Students develop practical skills, scientific understanding, and a deep connection to the natural world through hands-on work with plants and animals.
Learning in the Desert
Our location in the Sonoran Desert provides unique learning opportunities. Students discover how plants and animals adapt to our arid environment and learn sustainable practices for desert living. We grow drought-tolerant crops, use water-wise irrigation, and celebrate the beauty and resilience of our desert ecosystem.
School Garden
Our extensive gardens are outdoor classrooms where students learn about plants, ecology, and the cycles of nature through hands-on experience.
Garden Activities:
- Planting and harvesting seasonal vegetables
- Desert-adapted gardening techniques
- Composting and soil science
- Native plant identification
- Seed saving and plant propagation
- Garden-to-table cooking experiences
Animal Care
Students develop responsibility, empathy, and practical skills through caring for our school animals. Each class takes turns with daily animal care duties.
Our Animals:
- Chickens (egg collection and care)
- Goats and sheep
- Rabbits
- Classroom pets
Skills Developed:
- Feeding and watering schedules
- Habitat maintenance
- Animal health observation
- Understanding animal behavior
What Students Learn
Scientific Thinking
Observation, experimentation, and understanding of natural systems through direct experience.
Care and Responsibility
Developing empathy and reliability through caring for living things that depend on us.
Environmental Stewardship
Understanding our relationship with the Earth and our responsibility to care for it.
Curriculum Connections
Our garden and animal programs are woven into the curriculum at every grade level, providing hands-on experiences that deepen and enrich academic learning.
Daily outdoor time in nature, seasonal celebrations, and simple gardening tasks develop a loving relationship with the natural world.
Nature stories and fairy tales connect children to plants and animals. Simple gardening supports the curriculum.
The farming and house-building blocks directly use our garden and animals. Students experience practical work from planting to harvest.
Local geography and zoology studies are enriched by observing our desert ecosystem and the animals in our care.
Botany block comes alive in the garden. Students study plant families, life cycles, and the relationships between plants and their environment.
Geology, physics, and chemistry concepts connect to composting, soil science, and the practical systems of our garden and farm.
Environmental science, biology, and sustainability studies draw on our garden as a living laboratory.
Get Involved
Our garden and animal programs rely on parent and community volunteers. There are many ways to get involved, from weekend animal care to garden workdays to sharing your expertise.