November After School Special: Moving Closer to Zero Waste
Learn the latest updates from our colleagues in Food and Nutrition Services and Custodial Operations. Hear how schools are utilizing the Zero Waste Toolkit to enable stewardship and collaborate with other teachers to generate solutions to the challenges your school faces in moving towards Zero Waste. This after school special will be held Thursday, November 6, 2025 from 4:45-6:45pm. Register for Moving Closer to Zero Waste in MyPDE.
Thank you, Custodians!
October 2 is Custodian Appreciation Day. Thank you to all the FCPS custodians who ensure FCPS facilities are clean, safe places for all and who are strong allies for Get2Green’s environmental work in schools! We appreciate you!
US Botanic Garden Engaging Secondary Students in Plant Science Workshop
Looking to engage middle school or high school students with plant science? Join U.S. Botanic Garden educators on Saturday, October 18 from 10am-2:30pm to explore the connection between biodiversity, climate change, and the plants we eat. Through a series of hands-on science investigations, teachers will discover the value of crop diversity for climate resilience. Teachers will visit the Kitchen Garden to explore the traits of familiar cultivated crops and their wild relatives. At lunchtime, teachers will meet Nan McCarry, an ethnobotanist and crop wild relative specialist. Finally, teachers will make a plan for bringing plant science investigations back to their secondary science classrooms and school gardens. Lunch will be provided. Certificates will be available for PDUs. Register for the Engaging Secondary Students in Plant Science Workshop.
Take Me Outside Day
Take Me Outside Day is on October 22nd and helps to raise awareness about outdoor learning by encouraging educators to take their learners outside. This FREE virtual event is an entire week full of activities, speakers, and prizes to encourage folks to head beyond the four walls of a classroom! Learn more about Take Me Outside Day and register.
Arcadia Sustainable Food Field Trip Opportunities
Arcadia Center for Sustainable Foods and Agriculture is offering spring and fall field trips and educational opportunities at their Alexandria location. Learn more about Arcadia’s programs and to sign up for a field trip.
Free Milkweed from Monarch Watch
Schools and educational non-profits can receive free milkweed plugs to support monarch butterfly habitats. Application opens in early October. Award notifications are sent in mid-March and milkweed plugs are shipped April-mid-May. Milkweeds are awarded in the order applications are received. Learn more about Free Milkweed for Schools and submit your request.
Virginia Agriculture in the Classroom Grant
Agriculture in the Classroom provides educators an opportunity to receive grant funding for a variety of creative projects to increase student understanding of the source of food and fiber inside or outside the traditional classroom. Educators are encouraged to apply for grants of up to $500 for projects that may occur at school or during home learning time. Grant projects may address topics such as learning gardens and/or STEM integrations, or provide unique agriculture experiences for students. Applications are due Monday, October 13, 2025. Learn more and apply for a Virginia Ag in the Classroom grant.
Educate Fairfax Grant
Educate Fairfax Grants enable FCPS educators to provide students with equitable access to innovative learning experiences and opportunities in alignment with the FCPS Strategic Plan. Educators, faculty, and staff are invited to apply starting in September. To learn more and apply, visit the Educate Fairfax Website. Applications will be open from September through October 18, 2025.
Wild Ones Seeds for Education Grant
The Wild Ones Lorrie Otto Seeds for Education Grant Program provides up to $500 in funding for native gardens and habitats tied to hands-on learning. These funds are designated for native plants and seeds for outdoor learning areas that directly engage students PreK-12 in planning, planting, and caring for native gardens. Learn more and apply for the Seeds for Education Grant by Saturday, November 15, 2025.
Piedmont Environmental Education Foundation School Grant
The Piedmont Environmental Education Foundation is accepting applications for their school grants. Examples of successful funding requests include student field research, habitat restoration, water quality monitoring, and organic gardening. Grants focused on student research typically rank higher on the evaluation list. Grant requests are accepted on a continuous basis until the grant fund is depleted. Learn more and apply for the Piedmont Environmental Education Foundation Grant.
Bulbs, Fall Sowing, and Plant Division
Many schools are harvesting the final warm weather vegetables and planning to put their gardens to rest for winter. Fall offers great gardening opportunities to prolong the time spent outdoors. Planting spring blooming bulbs, sowing native flower seeds, and dividing perennials are great fall gardening activities.
Early spring blooming bulbs like crocus, snowdrops, winter aconite, glory of the snow, and muscari provide nectar and pollen sources for native mining bees, mason bees, bumblebee queens, and blue azure butterflies that emerge in late winter and early spring. Honeybees also benefit from these plants as they remain active during the winter and forage when temperatures rise above 50°F. These bulbs are easy to plant, typically deer resistant, and readily available. For those looking to plant native bulbs, there are trout lilies, claytonia, and wild hyacinth (camassia) which naturalize or spread and form larger colonies over time. If you are looking to plant something eye-catching that sparks curiosity, plant allium bulbs. Allium comes in many heights with golf ball to volleyball sized clusters of white to pink, lavender, or purple pollinator-attracting blooms.
To deter squirrels from digging up bulbs, plant later in fall after their peak foraging activity. Placing chicken wire or heavier gauge hardware cloth over the planted area can serve as a physical barrier to animal activity.
Journey North offers the opportunity to join educators and students across the U.S. and Canada in planting Red Emperor tulip bulbs. Even the youngest learners can engage in planting bulbs while learning basic observational, data gathering and reporting skills as they track the emergence and bloom times. Learn more about the Journey North Tulip Test Gardens.
Fall is the best time to sow many native seeds and divide crowded perennials. Sowing seeds like milkweed, Black-eyed Susans, columbine, and baptisia in fall allows them to naturally undergo cold-stratification. This process, involving natural exposure to winter temperature fluctuations and moisture, breaks down the hard seed coat, allowing seeds to germinate when conditions become favorable in spring. Don’t be alarmed if plants don’t flower! Seedlings typically bloom in their second season of growing. Divide plants by lifting plant crowns with attached roots with a spade or shovel. Divide or split into smaller divisions and replant or repot in a good quality potting mix to share.
No matter which fall planting activity you engage in, you are increasing the biodiversity in your gardens and providing additional support for next spring’s visiting pollinators.
Find fun and exciting Get2Green updates all month by following @fcpsGet2Green on Instagram, Threads, and X.
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