The Tea Project

Children, teachers, and parents conducted an in-depth study of tea in 2003. Project activities focused on literacy, math, science, history, social science, motor, social, and emotional skill development. Every class planted, picked, and steeped teas from all over the world. In the art studio, they drew the parts of leaves, roots, and stems and made tea cups from clay. In the classroom, they studied shapes, textures, sizes, and weights. In the garden, children learned the concepts of depth, length, and width by harvesting many different varieties.

They placed teas and herbs in transparent teapots, added boiling water, and identified the changes that occurred during the steeping process. Children watched with fascination as chrysanthemum flowers unfolded in hot water. They propagated new plants and fed the garden “compost tea” as an alternative fertilizer. Whole spices and herbs were brought in every week. They tried teas from bark (cinnamon), roots (ginger), flowers (hibiscus and lavender), flower buds (cloves), and seed pods (vanilla). Children studied the use of medicinal herbs from North America, the Mediterranean, and Pacific Rim, and the tea customs of their own families and country’s like India, Pakistan, and China. The Tea Project is just one example of how the project approach at Tule Elk Park makes learning most thoughtful, visible, and alive.

The Tea Project was made possible by a grant from First Five San Francisco of the Children and Families Commission.