Growing School Food Gardens

Hi. This year the 5th and 6th grade National Honor Society kids will be be coming to the garden 2x a week for their community service. I was asked to create job descriptions for the garden tasks. Does anyone have anything along these lines they can share to help get me started? I'm a kinesthetic person so the shift from doing hands on work is throwing me. Thanks!

Hi Denise,  I am new to the gardening thing but have been working with kids at various levels for a long time.  this year I ran an after school garden club for elementary school children and I learned many things.  One was that it is best to have specific, designated jobs when we were in the garden.  I had slips of paper with jobs on them that they would pick randomly each week.  Since I had a slightly different group each time - this worked best for us.  Jobs were: weeder ( one slip for each garden bed and one for walkways), waterer ( one slip for each garden bed), pollinator ( one slip for any bed with flowering plants), equipment manager ( handed out and collected hand rakes and gloves).  When there was planting or harvesting to be done we did those all together - I only had between 10 and 18 kids and 5 garden beds.  If you have the same kids each week, I would assign teams to a box or area and let them rotate the jobs.  This gives them a little more ownership of a specific area.  Hope this helps

Janis

Hello!

It's wonderful that the National Honor Society students from the fifth and sixth grades will be volunteering in your garden. To arrange their roles, creating job descriptions for the garden tasks can be beneficial. Even while I can't reveal any precise job descriptions, I can give you some recommendations to get you started.

1. Seed Planters: Charged with placing seeds in predetermined locations, ensuring optimum depth and spacing for best growth.

2. Weed Warriors: Charged with maintaining a neat and weed-free garden by clearing weeds from the garden beds, walkways, and adjacent areas.

3. Watering the plants, keeping an eye on their health, and looking out for any symptoms of pests or illnesses are the responsibilities of the plant caretakers.

4. Harvest assistants are in charge of gathering ripe fruits and vegetables and making sure they are handled gently.

5. Garden Cleaners: Assigned to keep the garden area clean and organized by clearing debris, maintaining compost bins, and tidying up tools.

Remember to adjust the job descriptions based on the specific needs and size of your garden. Also, encourage the students to rotate tasks to provide them with a well-rounded experience.

Thanks! Great ideas to add into the mix. I appreciate the insight. 

Denise