2025 Registrations Are Now Open Till...
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If you have questions book a zoom call to discuss here:
Or simply email or call Leila: 647-887-1534, [email protected]
Decades of Combined Experience!
Kids Growing City and The Growing Connection are collaborating!
Introducing the Caja Oasis School Garden Program.
Finally a program that grows you an educational curriculum-connected school garden.
- Best tools
- Most engaging and easy to follow lesson plans.
Remember the Caja Planters by The Growing Connection?
- Super easy to set up and grow with
- Sub-irrigated planters that...
- Are super easy to setup
- Give fantastic growing results
- Reduce watering by 80%
- Simplify summer maintenance
- Improve plant success
The challenge for schools and teachers was...
These amazing planters didn't come with Lesson Plans! So it was up to the teachers to find out how to use them effectively while teaching their curriculum.
A lot of guess work...
A lot of research...
A lot of trial and error...
had to be done by the teachers. And the success was not guaranteed!
The Solution?
Founders of Kids Growing City and The Growing Connection with a combined multiple decades of experience growing in schools have come together to bring you the...
Caja Oasis School Garden Program!
A program that takes the guess work out of growing and gives you the best guidance and tools...
A program that gives teachers
- 11 Curriculum Connected Lesson Plans specifically designed for growing a school garden in Caja Planters
- A Caja Planter garden (choice of 5 or 10 Caja planters per class)
- All supplies and material (depending on budget and availability)
Why Kids Growing City and The Growing Connection?
Kids Growing City
...has been growing school and classroom gardens since 2013 and since then our main focus has been figuring out the answer to this question:
"What's the most effective way to teach elementary curriculum using gardens as an authentic learning tool?"
And after a decade of working with educators side by side, developing, getting feedback, testing, and fine-tuning programs on the ground, we've got the perfect solution:
A proven 2-phase comprehensive program:
PHASE I: Oasis Classroom
PHASE II: Oasis School
Caja Oasis now combines these 2 phases into one, with ease!
Pre-COVID we our facilitators grew 15 amazing schools gardens in local schools.
Some of the schools we've worked with throughout the years are...
Redstone p.s., Windham Ridge P.S., Gosford P.S., Island Public/Natural Science School, R J Lang Elementary and Middle School, Don Mills M.S., Pelmo Park P.S., Donald Cousens P.S., Armadale P.S., Hollywood p.s., Beckett Farm P.S., Firgrove p.s., Somerset Academy, Mcmurrich p.s., CMS Private Schools, Richland Academy private school,
just to name a few.
Post-COVID we pivoted and made our 2-phase plan available to teachers online
Oasis Classroom grew over 100 classroom gardens in 2021, 2022 and 2023 for participating teachers.
Some of the schools that joined Oasis Classroom Program are...
Brown Junior Public School, Beverley Heights Middle School, Alexander Stirling P.S., Windham Ridge P.S., Greensborough P.S., Baycrest Public School, Dixon Grove Junior Middle School, Elmbank Junior Middle Academy, Rawlinson Community School,
just to name a few.
The Growing Connection...
...brings decades of local and international experience with hands-on community engagement. They provide exceptional products and services, allowing people to grow the freshest food and to enjoy the tastiest produce.
The Growing Connection started as a program of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, with the vision of growing fresh food right at the doorstep, and eliminating chronic nutrition and boring food.
Now, The Growing Connection is an independent organization that manufactures the Caja planters and is led by Robert Patterson and Christopher Wong. Robert spent over 30 years at the UN and has returned to his home country to support the “good food movement”. Christopher Wong has worked on innovative, sustainable food production in Toronto since 2009 with organizations like Young Urban Farmers and Cultivate Toronto.
How is The Growing Connection helping people achieve “Fresh food, grown virtually anywhere”?
And because the Caja has no moving parts, pumps, motors, or filters, it will provide decades of outstanding growing with minimal operating costs. The Caja uses up to 80% less water than conventional in-ground gardens or raised beds, and can be installed virtually anywhere (yes, you still need sunlight!). TGC designs gardens at schools, on terraces and rooftops, at institutional and corporate cafeterias, at clinics, hospitals, seniors residences and restaurants…there is really no limit. And because the Caja has no moving parts, no pumps, filters or motors, the operating costs are minimal.
It's about time to bring all these expertise under one program to help teachers easily grow amazing food gardens and transform their communities!
What's included in Caja Oasis School Garden Program:
From Kids Growing City you'll get:
11 Lesson Plans
- Lesson 1 (The week before March Break in Ontario: the week of March 3rd): The Science Behind Caja Planters
- Lesson 2: Timing and Plant Arrangement in Caja Oasis School gardens
- Lesson 3: Seeds and Seedlings
- Lesson 4: Soil
- Lesson 5: Water
- Lesson 6: Designing and Setting Up your Caja Oasis School Garden
- Lesson 7: Sowing in the Garden
- Lesson 8: Hardening Off Seedlings
- Lesson 9: Transplanting our Caja Oasis School Garden
- Lesson 10: Caja Oasis Summer Maintenance
- Lesson 11: Harvest and Celebrate Your Caja Oasis School Garden
11 Student Booklets, one per lesson
11 Classroom Wall Posters, one per lesson
A Complete Supplies Checklist
- For all lessons and per Lesson.
- Includes a list of all indoor seed starting supplies and craft material for building science experiments for all lessons.
Professional Development Hours
Upon Completion of Progress Reports...
- Every implemented lesson is considered 1.5 hours of professional development.
- A certificate of participation will be issued for the participating teachers, indicating their acquired professional development hours.
- This will be given ONLY to teachers who submit their weekly reports clearly showing their lesson executions and progress.
For Greater Toronto Area schools only: Supplies Add-on (at an additional cost and optional)
Indoor seed starting supplies and science lesson experimental craft material, upon purchase, depending on your budget, location, and availability.
From The Growing Connection you'll get:
A Caja Planters Garden:
- Your choice of 5 or 10 Cajas per class of 30 students
- You'll choose one of the following Kits (depending on your budget, location, and availability)
- Basic Caja Kit:
Caja Planter (the container itself)
Aeration Screen
Fill Tube
Mulch Cover -
Ready-to-Plant Caja (Complete Kit) - For Greater Toronto Area Schools Only:
Everything in the Basic Kit plus...
Custom-Blended Potting Soil Mix (2 bags, 50+ liters)
Organic Fertilizer/Dolomite mix
- Basic Caja Kit:
Have never grown a garden before?
Sometimes teachers who have grow successfully at home or have tried growing gardens at school are set on their "wrong" or inefficient ways of growing...
- which makes them less coachable and less open to different, innovative, and efficient ways to garden
- they are understandably attached to their old ways because they have invested a lot of nerves, time and energy setting those systems up or making those decisions.
...You have an advantage to learn the right way and have massive success by following the right advice and having the right tools in this program.
Registration Deadline:
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Your Investment will only be...
The Lesson Plan Package
1 School Year Teaching License for 1 teacher to teach 1 class of up to 30 students
- 11 Lesson Plans
- 11 Student Booklets
- 11 Supplies Checklists
- 11 Classroom Wall Posters
$1,111 CAD for the first teacher
$111 per additional teacher in the same school
Supplies Delivery Add-on (optional only for Greater Toronto Area schools)
Includes packaging and delivery of all indoor-seed starting supplies (organic and/or Heirloom seeds, organically made potting soil, seed starting cups and buckets and all materials for the science experiments that are in the 11 lesson plans.)
$775 CAD for every class of up to 30 students
Caja Planter Packages
Prices are per classroom of up to 30 students complementing the Lesson Plan Package for one teacher.
Options to pick from:
1) $390 + HST for 5-planters with Basic Kit
2) $545 + HST for 5 planters with Complete Kit
3) $750 + HST for 10 planters with Basic Kit
4) $995 + HST for 10 planters with Complete Kit
Basic Caja Kit contains:
- Caja Planters (the containers)
- Aeration Screen
- Fill Tube
- Mulch Cover
Ready-to-Plant Caja Kit* Contains:
- Everything in the Basic Kit plus...
- Custom-blended Organic Substrate (2 bags, 50+ liters)
- Organic Fertilizer/Dolomite mix
* Delivery is free for Greater Toronto Area schools. For everyone else in North America, delivery will be calculated on a case by case basis. Contact [email protected] for information about your delivery.
Already have at least 5 Caja Planters? You can register 1 teacher for every 5 planters into the lesson plans.
Important Dates:
Ideal start date is...
The first week of March.
This program could run from after March Break (spring break) for 11 weeks till the end of May or mid-June.
You need 11 weeks to run and implement this program. We always recommend leaving at least 2 weeks at the end of your school year without programming, therefore if your school year ends at the end of June, you should start at the beginning of March, and even earlier if your school year ends at the end of May.
If you followed and executed all Lessons and utilized my coaching sessions to ask your questions and your garden was not successful(*)…
Just email [email protected] including your proof (documented with pictures) and we will refund 100% of your money!
(*) Disclaimers:
- Even for expert and professional growers, seed germination is never 100%, even when they do everything right! It is natural for some variation in seed growth and germination.
- Your success directly correlates with the quality of your seeds and soil as well as the sunlight your seedlings receive. We highly recommend Supplies Add-on for local schools and attention to quality indicators on the material checklists for all!
- The Guarantee and refund is applied only to the Lesson Plan aspect of the program, not the Caja planter kits
Plus An Amazing Bonus
(free of extra charge)
Coaching
FREE Coaching sessions with one-on-one help before, during and after the programs till the end of the school year!
At least 1 hour per lesson.
Sessions are with Leila Mireskandari, the founder and director of Kids' Growing City and the creator of Oasis Programs who's been growing food with students, teachers and schools for almost a decade at full-time capacity.
She charges $200/Hour for Private Coaching. At least 11 hours of access to her is
