Growing Together: Open Forum

Hi Everyone, 

In honor of the Olympic Games next month, KidsGardening is theming our content around "Garden Games" in July! We'd like to publish a round-up of easy games to play with kids in garden spaces to either break the ice or facilitate movement or team building. We'd love to feature some of your great ideas in this piece and would credit your idea to you within the article. Games can be competitive or non-competitive but would ideally not require many materials or extensive instructions. Please let us know if there are any great games you play with groups of kids that we can share with your fellow educators during this fun content month!

Warm Regards,

Noel Nicholas

Educational Content Manager

KidsGardening.org

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Noel Nicholas
KidsGardening
CA
(She/Her/Hers)
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One of my favorite go-tos is the "Plant Detective" game. The kids become little garden detectives, hunting for different plants, insects, or garden features based on a series of fun clues or riddles. For example, "Find a plant with spiky leaves" or "Locate a bug that's good for the garden." It's like a green scavenger hunt and gets the kids exploring and learning about nature without even realizing it.

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Mark Johnson
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 One of that last garden lessons of the school year I do for the fifth graders is a "Garden Amazing Race" where each team has tasks at different stations to complete around the school garden. An example of one task is to create a bird nest from materials found on the ground of the garden. Another station is to plot out a summer veggie garden using a planting companion chart. For the fourth graders, I created a "$100.000 Pyramid". The categories are things we learned during the year, like "Things that are pollinators" or "Parts of a Plant".

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Evelyn Margolin
Sacramento, CA
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Hello,

I think you could include an insect identification station, where each team uses a guide to identify and document common garden insects. Engaging station could be a compost challenge, where students sort a pile of items into compostable and non-compostable categories. demonstration of a simple rainwater collection system or have students measure how much water different plants need. A garden scavenger hunt with a list of specific plants, flowers, or garden features for students to find and photograph could be both fun and instructive.

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Lila Monroe
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Original Message:
Sent: 06-07-2024 07:12:15 PM
From: Evelyn Margolin
Subject: Garden Games!!

 One of that last garden lessons of the school year I do for the fifth graders is a "Garden Amazing Race" where each team has tasks at different stations to complete around the school garden. An example of one task is to create a bird nest from materials found on the ground of the garden. Another station is to plot out a summer veggie garden using a planting companion chart. For the fourth graders, I created a "$100.000 Pyramid". The categories are things we learned during the year, like "Things that are pollinators" or "Parts of a Plant".

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Evelyn Margolin
Sacramento, CA
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Weed Warriors is a fun way to complete a necessary chore while learning to work as a team. Set a timer for 10 minutes. Teams work to weed a defined area. Points are awarded for the greatest quantity pulled within the time limit. The whole weed (including the root) must be removed. No just pulling the tops. Extra points for longest weed, widest weed, most unusual weed, most pernicious (and thus, most needed to be removed) weed, etc. Before composting (or disposing of) the yield, it's an excellent opportunity to examine and compare/contrast the plants and their parts. You can also teach the names of weeds and how to differentiate between the weeds we need to remove and a desired plant with similar characteristics that should stay.

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Erin Hoffer
Sustainability and Environmental Education Division (SEED)
Plano TX
erinhof@plano.gov
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Little late in the month for a comment here, but our 1st grade Boys Girls Club gardening class really enjoyed playing smash or save to kick off our study of pollinators.   I showed them microscope enlarged pics of Georgia pollinators (or insects), had them choose smash or save, and then followed with pictures of what they really were and their place in the environment.   We had a meaningful discussion about pollinators, their benefits to gardening, general garden kindness and garden etiquette.  When then took a tour of our farm garden the last half of the class and the tour was much more meaningful and mindful putting this knowledge to action.   

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Suzanne Moses
Wimberly's Roots Community Garden and Kitchen
Winder GA
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I made up a game called "Weeds and Seeds", a variation of the old "Red Light Green Light" game.   Kids stand in a row spaced apart. Across from them (you choose the distance) is a rope/string on the ground (representing a garden). A caller yells either "seeds" and the kids run toward the rope, or "weeds" and they have to stop. First "seed" to the "garden" wins. It's an easy game to play, good time filler, and the kids love it! 

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Linda Sternin
Edison Elementary Community and Children's Garden
NY
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Original Message:
Sent: 06-28-2024 03:11:07 PM
From: Suzanne Moses
Subject: Garden Games!!

Little late in the month for a comment here, but our 1st grade Boys Girls Club gardening class really enjoyed playing smash or save to kick off our study of pollinators.   I showed them microscope enlarged pics of Georgia pollinators (or insects), had them choose smash or save, and then followed with pictures of what they really were and their place in the environment.   We had a meaningful discussion about pollinators, their benefits to gardening, general garden kindness and garden etiquette.  When then took a tour of our farm garden the last half of the class and the tour was much more meaningful and mindful putting this knowledge to action.   

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Suzanne Moses
Wimberly's Roots Community Garden and Kitchen
Winder GA
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