Growing Together: Open Forum

Had to delete for work purposes apologies! 
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Kalie Johnson
Fostering Hope Ohio
OH
------------------------------

This is great!  Thank you for sharing!!!

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Hope Sickmeier
------------------------------

Wow, what a terrific series! Great framework while allowing for "planned flexibility".  :-D   Very adaptable and a wonderful variety of (potential) activities in each 45-minute session. I can't imagine there's time to do everything listed, but the diversity of possible projects is awesome. Kudos to you and your team!!!

A couple of thoughts:

~~ love the idea of Lego gardens!  <3

~~ imho, it's okay if the kids do NOT get to weed ~ yet ~ until they really understand the difference between the weed and the plant that is desired. I've lost more than a few flower, wildflower and veggie seedlings over the years to "helpful" weeders.  :-/   Better to emphasize the fun aspects of gardening as much as possible, which you are already doing. If they develop the passion (or are born with it and just need it teased out), they won't mind the other maintenance chores that go along with the process. But those would-be farmers will be a MUCH smaller subset of the main group(s), in my experience.

~~ I don't call them "Seed Bombs" any more, but rather "Seed Balls" or "Seed Cookies". And I encourage a variety of shapes, since balls roll downhill so are not as conducive to scatter-planting, lol.

~~ Lavender lemonade is fun to make because the lavender tea turns the lemonade pink. Garden chemistry.

Thanks so much for sharing. May your Summer 2024 Garden adventures be bountiful and fun for all!  :-)

Best,

Carole

------------------------------
Carole Palmer
------------------------------

Here's a write-up of my garden activity planning for the summer. It's a lot, but hopefully helpful! We typically have 45 minute periods. Younger groups are K-1st grade, older 2nd-5th grade. 

Growing a Garden 101 

• What do people do to keep their garden growing and healthy? (5 minutes)

• Watering, weeding, etc. 

• Today we are going to learn how to properly take care of a garden.

• Younger Groups

  • If you have time before the group gets there, you can fill up milk jugs and watering cans

  • Demonstrate how to properly water plants (watering the soil at the base of the plant, not the leaves)

  • Explain that the roots are the part of the plant that need the water (watering the leaves can potentially lead to sun damage on a sunny day)

  • Pass out milk jugs and/or watering cans. Tell the kids to keep track of the milk jug caps! Have kids line up to get them filled with water. Remind them to walk while they are in the garden. When their watering can is empty they can come back for more. 

• Watering (30 minutes)

• Older Groups

  • Pull examples of certain common weeds in the garden (dandelion, purslane, grass, etc.). Have enough of each weed so each group can have one to take with them into the garden for identification purposes 

    • If it matches your example weed

    • If it is not growing in a row with other plants that look the same

    • If it is growing in a walkway/in the wood chips

    • Make sure they are 100% sure before pulling a weed. If they have any questions they should raise their hands or move on to something they can identify 

  • What is a good way to tell if the plant is a weed?

  • Divide the large group into 6 small groups

  • Give each small group a weeding tool or trowel and one of each of the weeds they need to find in the garden 

  • Before letting them go, demonstrate how to properly pull a weed, getting as much of the root as possible. Have a competition to see who can get the longest root

• Weeding scavenger hunt (30 minutes)

• If you have a lot of extra time, you can have them help water the garden as well

• Garden Taste Test Tour (10 minutes)

 

Composting

• Introduction (5 minutes) What is composting? What kinds of things can be put into compost? What helps break down compost?

• Garden compost (20 minutes)

  • We build it like a lasagna and then let it sit for a year. If we build it properly, it should get really hot inside (150-160 degrees!) and break down into compost we can use in the garden! 

  • What do you see in the bottom layer?

  • Carbon-rich materials like shredded cardboard, hay, leaves, paper, napkins, sawdust, straw, and woodchips

  • What about the second layer?

  • Nitrogen-rich materials like vegetable and fruit scraps, coffee grounds, spoiled produce, young weeds

  • We need equal parts carbon-rich and nitrogen-rich materials 

  • Depending on what layer the pile is in, have the campers help add to it. 

  • Ideally, campers would add a carbon layer (help shred paper/cardboard/paper towel, add it to the pile, help compress it, and water it)

  • If adding a nitrogen layer, have campers use shovels to move nitrogen-rich materials from one compartment to the pile. Have them look for worms and other insects.

• Explain how this compost pile works.

• Have the campers help build the pile.

• Microgreens compost (10 minutes)

• Show the group the composting system we have for microgreens. Explain that since microgreens are so small, they break down faster, and we can use the compost to grow more microgreens.

• Demonstrate how we turn the compost–why do we do this? Give each camper a chance to try to spin the barrel, mixing the compost. 

• (if you have time, have the group plant and/or taste microgreens)

• Garden Taste Test Tour (10 minutes)

 

Garden Bugs: Good vs. Bad

• What is an insect? (10 minutes)

  • To the tune of Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes

  • Head (Point to head.)

  • Thorax (Point to chest.)

  • Abdomen – abdomen! (Point to stomach.)

  • Head, thorax, abdomen – abdomen!

  • Eyes (Point to eyes.)

  • And mouth (Point to mouth.)

  • Antennae (Stick 2 fingers up.)

  • And six legs (Wiggle 3 fingers on each hand.)

  • Head, thorax, abdomen – abdomen!

  • Optional: Leave off a verse each time you sing and hum.

• What are the parts of an insect? Head, thorax, abdomen

• What insects do you think you could find in the garden?

• What are some bugs that are not insects that you might find in the garden (hint: they have more than 6 legs)? Pillbug (terrestrial crustacean/isopod), spider (arachnid), millipedes and centipedes (myriapods) 

• Go through examples of good bugs (predators, pollinators) and bad bugs (pests)

• Older group (25 minutes)

• Brainstorm ways to get rid of pests

• Form groups of three or four. Each group will get a bucket of water with a little bit of soap. 

• Lead them to plants that commonly have pests (potato beetles/larvae, asparagus beetles/larvae, cabbage worms on brassicas). Have them look carefully for signs of damage and pests. If they find pests, have them pick them off and put them in their bucket. 

• If you aren't finding any pests, see what other bugs are around the garden. Hand out laminated sheets to see if they can identify them. 

• Younger group (25 minutes)

• Go on a bug hunt around the garden

• Hand out laminated bug sheets and tell the kids to look very carefully on leaves, on flowers, in the soil, etc. 

• Report back to the group with what you found

• Garden Taste Test Tour (10 minutes)

Younger Groups: 6 Plant Parts

• What are the 6 parts of a plant? (10 minutes)

• Roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds

• Draw diagram and have kids help label it

• What does each part of the plant do?

• 6 Plant Part Yoga (10 minutes)

  • First you are a seed planted under the ground. It is very dark and you are waiting to grow. 

  • Now feel the rain coming down (make raining motions with your hands). Now that the soil is wet, we can begin to grow our roots (have kids stick out one leg at a time). Pretend your legs/roots are soaking up the water and nutrients from the soil.

  • With enough water and nutrients, your stem can now grow. (Have them place their hands together and begin to slowly reach up). Now you've popped through the soil and can feel the sunlight. You grow taller and taller. (They should be standing now, with their arms stretched above their heads)

  • To collect the sun to make food for the plant, we need to grow some leaves. Spread your hands wide and hold your arms wide open to catch as much sunlight as possible. Can you feel the warmth of the sun on your leaves?

  • Once you've gathered enough sun to make food, you will have enough energy to make a flower. (have the kids form a circle around their faces with their arms) What a bright beautiful flower garden!

  • I hear some bees coming (have everyone buzz like a bee). They are here to pollinate the flowers. They will move the pollen around and collect nectar to make honey. As they move pollen around, the flowers can make fruits (have the kids pretend they are holding a fruit in their hands)

  • Now inside of these fruits are seeds. Let's take a bit of our fruit to see if we can find some. (Take a bit of your imaginary fruit. Pretend you found a seed in your mouth and pretend to spit it out.) ptooey! 

  • Now the seed is in the ground (crouch back down into a ball) and the cycle of the seed will begin again

• Have the kids spread out and have everyone crouch into a ball pretending to be a seed. Guide them through how a plant grows and emphasize each part as it grows. Go through the cycle a couple of times. 

• Guess that plant part game (10 minutes)

• Hold up cards with pictures of fruits and vegetables

• Have one hoola hoop representing each part of the plant

• Have the kids guess the part of the plant by standing by the corresponding hoola hoop

• Eat all 6 plant parts (15 minutes)

• Take the kids around the garden and try to eat as many of the plant parts as you can find

 

Older Groups: Pollination

• What is pollination? (5 minutes)

  • Insects (bees, butterflies, flies, etc.), hummingbirds, wind 

• What are the different kinds of pollination?

• Pollinator profiles (everyone gets a card, find your partner, match animal cards to flower cards) (5 minutes)

• Look for flowers and pollinators in the garden (10 minutes)

• How do you think this flower is pollinated? How can you tell?

• What kind of pollinators can you find in the garden? What are they doing? What kind of flowers are they on?

• Play hoolahoop pollination game (15 minutes)

• Garden Taste Test Tour (10 minutes)

 

Additional activities:

 

Introduction to Garden

• Where does our food come from? (5 minutes)

• Talk about kitchens/gardens/stores/farms

• What do gardens/seeds need to grow? (25 minutes)

  • Goals and Objectives

  • Review with students that all living things need nutrients (energy, food) and water to grow.

  • Talk about what a plant needs to grow (air, water, light, soil). Ask what happens if a plant gets too much or too little of any of these elements.

  • Compare to people's needs and point out that we need to eat food, drink water, and get adequate sleep to grow.

  • Supplies Needed

  • Six toy hoops.

  • Bean bags (one each of red, yellow, blue, and green make one set;several sets needed per group; additional black or patterned bean bags for optional activity).

  • Space to run and move 

  • Set up

    • Yellow=sun (energy to make food)

    • Blue=water

    • Red=seed

    • Green=plant food

  • Scatter toy hoops throughout the gym or other open area.

  • Randomly divide bean bags into several piles. No need to sort by color or divide equally between piles.

  • Divide the class into six groups, one group at each toy hoop.

  • Inform the students that they will be "planting" a garden. The bean bags will represent what is needed to have a garden grow. The toy hoop represents the garden.

  • Have students name what is needed and write the answers on the board. When one of the following is mentioned, circle it and assign the bean bag color:

  • Activity

  • To make their garden "grow," groups will need one seed, one sun, one water, and one plant food. (One each of red, yellow, blue, and green inside their toy hoops.) Every additional set of bean bags can be counted as an inch of growth.

  • Groups can send out one person at a time as a messenger to take a bean bag from a pile. The messenger can only carry one bean bag at a time and can take a bean bag from any pile. The team must communicate what color is needed to the messenger. At the end of 10 minutes, students will return to their group and count completed sets to see how much their garden has "grown." For each red bean bag (seed), have students tell the name of a Wisconsin grown fruit or vegetable they are "growing" in their garden. 

  • Closure

  • Have students share what they need to grow. Do the vegetables "growing" in their hoop garden help the student's grow? What do the vegetables provide? (Energy, water/fluid, nutrients.)

• Play Growing a Garden Game 

• Garden rules/any questions before we go into the garden? (5 minutes)

• Use walking feet

• Stay on paths/do not jump over or step in beds

• Do not pick or eat anything unless garden educator says

• Garden Taste Test Tour (10 minutes)

• Go around the garden and let the kids try what is in season

 

Potato Heads

• Introduction (5 minutes) What are potatoes? What part of the plant are they? What do we need to do to harvest them? How can you eat them?

• Harvest and wash potatoes (15-20 minutes)

• Have campers line up at the edge of the potato bed where they will be digging. You can mark the area with arrows to make it easier to see. 

• Explain how to use a trowel and be aware of the people around you. If they do not use them correctly, they will not get to participate. Pass out 1 trowel to each camper.

• Have them dig for potatoes–you can either have them dig 1 or 2. If they dig 2 they can pick out which potato they would like to send to the food pantry.

• Have a wheelbarrow full of water set up where they can wash their potatoes. Send them there when they are done digging. Then meet under the tent and wait patiently for supplies to be handed out.

• Decorate potatoes (15-20 minutes)

• Gather vegetables/edible flowers ahead of time for the kids to decorate their potatoes. Cut large vegetables into small pieces. Make sure you have at least a couple pieces of each vegetable for each camper.

• Explain how to stick the toothpicks into the potato and then add vegetable decorations.

• Hand out a few toothpicks (I usually use ½ toothpicks) to each camper along with a few pieces of each vegetable. If there are extra veggies, you can hand out more later. 

• Clean up/Eat decorations and pack into bags to take home (5 minutes) 

• Campers can eat the vegetable decorations off their potato if they desire–just make sure the toothpicks are out! The potatoes should be taken home (in a ziplock) and cooked before consuming. 

• Make sure any vegetable scraps on the ground go into the compost and any garbage goes into the garbage can.

 

Older groups: Flowers

• Introduction (10 minutes) Why do plants have flowers?

• Go through the parts of a flower (see green pollination activity folder for flower anatomy sheet)

• Single vs Compound flower (show examples)

• Flower dissection (10 minutes)

• Pre-pick flowers for the kids to dissect, try to pick flowers with easily identifiable parts

• Dissect a flower with a partner, see how many parts you can identify

• Flower stamping (15 minutes) 

• Collect flowers from in and around garden (if picking flowers in garden they need to ask first, wildflowers outside of garden are fair game)

• Brush flowers with paint and make impressions on paper

• Garden Taste Test Tour (10 minutes)

• Go around the garden and let the kids try what is in season

 

Rain Day Activities

 

Vermicompost/Worm Bin

• See program write-up

 

Deconstruct Your Lunch (https://farmtoschooltogo.wordpress.com/lessons/deconstruct-your-lunch/)

• Where does food come from?

• Trace back each ingredient that makes up a hamburger

• Print and laminate pictures. 

• Use velcro and felt board?

• What does each ingredient have in common? (Sun, rain, soil)

• Ask about what kids are having for lunch. Trace back something from their lunches.

• Challenge them to come up with a food item that does not trace back to sun/water/soil

 

Food Groups/MyPlate 

• What are the food groups? What does each food group do?

  • Dairy provides calcium for bones; proteins (meats, fish, nuts, seeds) provides the protein building blocks for muscle; fruits and vegetables help us heal and keep eyes, hair, and skin healthy; and grains (bread, cereal, rice, and pasta) give us energy to work and play. Mention that fats and oils are needed in very small amounts for healthy growth, but too much fat in the diet will cause some health problems. 

• Guess that Food

  • Large paper or reusable grocery bags (this will be the "guessing bag").

  • Blindfolds (optional).

  • A variety of foods (real or plastic foods and food containers, such as a washed yogurt or milk carton) that can be handled by the student, including foods grown and produced in Wisconsin.

  • Large box, cooler, or bag to keep the foods out of sight.

  • Students take turns being the contestants. The contestant leaves the room while a food is selected by the teacher, shown to the class, and put in the guessing bag. The contestant returns to the class and reaches into the bag (wearing a blindfold or without looking) and tries to guess what food they have grabbed. The rest of the class could help by giving clues. Clues can include what plant part, as discussed in previous Six Plant Part lessons.

  • When each food is pulled out of the bag, have the class decide the food group to which it belongs. Students should tell why each food goes where they put it. If it is a plant, have students also classify the plant part.

  • As each food is placed in its group, discuss what each food does for our bodies. Have students identify if the food is grown and/or processed in Wisconsin.

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Laura Aprill
------------------------------

Your curriculum is amazing. Thank you for the amount of detail you put into this post. It is extremely helpful.

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Rachel Schwartz
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 03-05-2024 02:32:21 PM
From: Laura Aprill
Subject: Sharing Summer Nature Curriculum

Here's a write-up of my garden activity planning for the summer. It's a lot, but hopefully helpful! We typically have 45 minute periods. Younger groups are K-1st grade, older 2nd-5th grade. 

Growing a Garden 101 

• What do people do to keep their garden growing and healthy? (5 minutes)

• Watering, weeding, etc. 

• Today we are going to learn how to properly take care of a garden.

• Younger Groups

  • If you have time before the group gets there, you can fill up milk jugs and watering cans

  • Demonstrate how to properly water plants (watering the soil at the base of the plant, not the leaves)

  • Explain that the roots are the part of the plant that need the water (watering the leaves can potentially lead to sun damage on a sunny day)

  • Pass out milk jugs and/or watering cans. Tell the kids to keep track of the milk jug caps! Have kids line up to get them filled with water. Remind them to walk while they are in the garden. When their watering can is empty they can come back for more. 

• Watering (30 minutes)

• Older Groups

  • Pull examples of certain common weeds in the garden (dandelion, purslane, grass, etc.). Have enough of each weed so each group can have one to take with them into the garden for identification purposes 

    • If it matches your example weed

    • If it is not growing in a row with other plants that look the same

    • If it is growing in a walkway/in the wood chips

    • Make sure they are 100% sure before pulling a weed. If they have any questions they should raise their hands or move on to something they can identify 

  • What is a good way to tell if the plant is a weed?

  • Divide the large group into 6 small groups

  • Give each small group a weeding tool or trowel and one of each of the weeds they need to find in the garden 

  • Before letting them go, demonstrate how to properly pull a weed, getting as much of the root as possible. Have a competition to see who can get the longest root

• Weeding scavenger hunt (30 minutes)

• If you have a lot of extra time, you can have them help water the garden as well

• Garden Taste Test Tour (10 minutes)

 

Composting

• Introduction (5 minutes) What is composting? What kinds of things can be put into compost? What helps break down compost?

• Garden compost (20 minutes)

  • We build it like a lasagna and then let it sit for a year. If we build it properly, it should get really hot inside (150-160 degrees!) and break down into compost we can use in the garden! 

  • What do you see in the bottom layer?

  • Carbon-rich materials like shredded cardboard, hay, leaves, paper, napkins, sawdust, straw, and woodchips

  • What about the second layer?

  • Nitrogen-rich materials like vegetable and fruit scraps, coffee grounds, spoiled produce, young weeds

  • We need equal parts carbon-rich and nitrogen-rich materials 

  • Depending on what layer the pile is in, have the campers help add to it. 

  • Ideally, campers would add a carbon layer (help shred paper/cardboard/paper towel, add it to the pile, help compress it, and water it)

  • If adding a nitrogen layer, have campers use shovels to move nitrogen-rich materials from one compartment to the pile. Have them look for worms and other insects.

• Explain how this compost pile works.

• Have the campers help build the pile.

• Microgreens compost (10 minutes)

• Show the group the composting system we have for microgreens. Explain that since microgreens are so small, they break down faster, and we can use the compost to grow more microgreens.

• Demonstrate how we turn the compost–why do we do this? Give each camper a chance to try to spin the barrel, mixing the compost. 

• (if you have time, have the group plant and/or taste microgreens)

• Garden Taste Test Tour (10 minutes)

 

Garden Bugs: Good vs. Bad

• What is an insect? (10 minutes)

  • To the tune of Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes

  • Head (Point to head.)

  • Thorax (Point to chest.)

  • Abdomen – abdomen! (Point to stomach.)

  • Head, thorax, abdomen – abdomen!

  • Eyes (Point to eyes.)

  • And mouth (Point to mouth.)

  • Antennae (Stick 2 fingers up.)

  • And six legs (Wiggle 3 fingers on each hand.)

  • Head, thorax, abdomen – abdomen!

  • Optional: Leave off a verse each time you sing and hum.

• What are the parts of an insect? Head, thorax, abdomen

• What insects do you think you could find in the garden?

• What are some bugs that are not insects that you might find in the garden (hint: they have more than 6 legs)? Pillbug (terrestrial crustacean/isopod), spider (arachnid), millipedes and centipedes (myriapods) 

• Go through examples of good bugs (predators, pollinators) and bad bugs (pests)

• Older group (25 minutes)

• Brainstorm ways to get rid of pests

• Form groups of three or four. Each group will get a bucket of water with a little bit of soap. 

• Lead them to plants that commonly have pests (potato beetles/larvae, asparagus beetles/larvae, cabbage worms on brassicas). Have them look carefully for signs of damage and pests. If they find pests, have them pick them off and put them in their bucket. 

• If you aren't finding any pests, see what other bugs are around the garden. Hand out laminated sheets to see if they can identify them. 

• Younger group (25 minutes)

• Go on a bug hunt around the garden

• Hand out laminated bug sheets and tell the kids to look very carefully on leaves, on flowers, in the soil, etc. 

• Report back to the group with what you found

• Garden Taste Test Tour (10 minutes)

Younger Groups: 6 Plant Parts

• What are the 6 parts of a plant? (10 minutes)

• Roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds

• Draw diagram and have kids help label it

• What does each part of the plant do?

• 6 Plant Part Yoga (10 minutes)

  • First you are a seed planted under the ground. It is very dark and you are waiting to grow. 

  • Now feel the rain coming down (make raining motions with your hands). Now that the soil is wet, we can begin to grow our roots (have kids stick out one leg at a time). Pretend your legs/roots are soaking up the water and nutrients from the soil.

  • With enough water and nutrients, your stem can now grow. (Have them place their hands together and begin to slowly reach up). Now you've popped through the soil and can feel the sunlight. You grow taller and taller. (They should be standing now, with their arms stretched above their heads)

  • To collect the sun to make food for the plant, we need to grow some leaves. Spread your hands wide and hold your arms wide open to catch as much sunlight as possible. Can you feel the warmth of the sun on your leaves?

  • Once you've gathered enough sun to make food, you will have enough energy to make a flower. (have the kids form a circle around their faces with their arms) What a bright beautiful flower garden!

  • I hear some bees coming (have everyone buzz like a bee). They are here to pollinate the flowers. They will move the pollen around and collect nectar to make honey. As they move pollen around, the flowers can make fruits (have the kids pretend they are holding a fruit in their hands)

  • Now inside of these fruits are seeds. Let's take a bit of our fruit to see if we can find some. (Take a bit of your imaginary fruit. Pretend you found a seed in your mouth and pretend to spit it out.) ptooey! 

  • Now the seed is in the ground (crouch back down into a ball) and the cycle of the seed will begin again

• Have the kids spread out and have everyone crouch into a ball pretending to be a seed. Guide them through how a plant grows and emphasize each part as it grows. Go through the cycle a couple of times. 

• Guess that plant part game (10 minutes)

• Hold up cards with pictures of fruits and vegetables

• Have one hoola hoop representing each part of the plant

• Have the kids guess the part of the plant by standing by the corresponding hoola hoop

• Eat all 6 plant parts (15 minutes)

• Take the kids around the garden and try to eat as many of the plant parts as you can find

 

Older Groups: Pollination

• What is pollination? (5 minutes)

  • Insects (bees, butterflies, flies, etc.), hummingbirds, wind 

• What are the different kinds of pollination?

• Pollinator profiles (everyone gets a card, find your partner, match animal cards to flower cards) (5 minutes)

• Look for flowers and pollinators in the garden (10 minutes)

• How do you think this flower is pollinated? How can you tell?

• What kind of pollinators can you find in the garden? What are they doing? What kind of flowers are they on?

• Play hoolahoop pollination game (15 minutes)

• Garden Taste Test Tour (10 minutes)

 

Additional activities:

 

Introduction to Garden

• Where does our food come from? (5 minutes)

• Talk about kitchens/gardens/stores/farms

• What do gardens/seeds need to grow? (25 minutes)

  • Goals and Objectives

  • Review with students that all living things need nutrients (energy, food) and water to grow.

  • Talk about what a plant needs to grow (air, water, light, soil). Ask what happens if a plant gets too much or too little of any of these elements.

  • Compare to people's needs and point out that we need to eat food, drink water, and get adequate sleep to grow.

  • Supplies Needed

  • Six toy hoops.

  • Bean bags (one each of red, yellow, blue, and green make one set;several sets needed per group; additional black or patterned bean bags for optional activity).

  • Space to run and move 

  • Set up

    • Yellow=sun (energy to make food)

    • Blue=water

    • Red=seed

    • Green=plant food

  • Scatter toy hoops throughout the gym or other open area.

  • Randomly divide bean bags into several piles. No need to sort by color or divide equally between piles.

  • Divide the class into six groups, one group at each toy hoop.

  • Inform the students that they will be "planting" a garden. The bean bags will represent what is needed to have a garden grow. The toy hoop represents the garden.

  • Have students name what is needed and write the answers on the board. When one of the following is mentioned, circle it and assign the bean bag color:

  • Activity

  • To make their garden "grow," groups will need one seed, one sun, one water, and one plant food. (One each of red, yellow, blue, and green inside their toy hoops.) Every additional set of bean bags can be counted as an inch of growth.

  • Groups can send out one person at a time as a messenger to take a bean bag from a pile. The messenger can only carry one bean bag at a time and can take a bean bag from any pile. The team must communicate what color is needed to the messenger. At the end of 10 minutes, students will return to their group and count completed sets to see how much their garden has "grown." For each red bean bag (seed), have students tell the name of a Wisconsin grown fruit or vegetable they are "growing" in their garden. 

  • Closure

  • Have students share what they need to grow. Do the vegetables "growing" in their hoop garden help the student's grow? What do the vegetables provide? (Energy, water/fluid, nutrients.)

• Play Growing a Garden Game 

• Garden rules/any questions before we go into the garden? (5 minutes)

• Use walking feet

• Stay on paths/do not jump over or step in beds

• Do not pick or eat anything unless garden educator says

• Garden Taste Test Tour (10 minutes)

• Go around the garden and let the kids try what is in season

 

Potato Heads

• Introduction (5 minutes) What are potatoes? What part of the plant are they? What do we need to do to harvest them? How can you eat them?

• Harvest and wash potatoes (15-20 minutes)

• Have campers line up at the edge of the potato bed where they will be digging. You can mark the area with arrows to make it easier to see. 

• Explain how to use a trowel and be aware of the people around you. If they do not use them correctly, they will not get to participate. Pass out 1 trowel to each camper.

• Have them dig for potatoes–you can either have them dig 1 or 2. If they dig 2 they can pick out which potato they would like to send to the food pantry.

• Have a wheelbarrow full of water set up where they can wash their potatoes. Send them there when they are done digging. Then meet under the tent and wait patiently for supplies to be handed out.

• Decorate potatoes (15-20 minutes)

• Gather vegetables/edible flowers ahead of time for the kids to decorate their potatoes. Cut large vegetables into small pieces. Make sure you have at least a couple pieces of each vegetable for each camper.

• Explain how to stick the toothpicks into the potato and then add vegetable decorations.

• Hand out a few toothpicks (I usually use ½ toothpicks) to each camper along with a few pieces of each vegetable. If there are extra veggies, you can hand out more later. 

• Clean up/Eat decorations and pack into bags to take home (5 minutes) 

• Campers can eat the vegetable decorations off their potato if they desire–just make sure the toothpicks are out! The potatoes should be taken home (in a ziplock) and cooked before consuming. 

• Make sure any vegetable scraps on the ground go into the compost and any garbage goes into the garbage can.

 

Older groups: Flowers

• Introduction (10 minutes) Why do plants have flowers?

• Go through the parts of a flower (see green pollination activity folder for flower anatomy sheet)

• Single vs Compound flower (show examples)

• Flower dissection (10 minutes)

• Pre-pick flowers for the kids to dissect, try to pick flowers with easily identifiable parts

• Dissect a flower with a partner, see how many parts you can identify

• Flower stamping (15 minutes) 

• Collect flowers from in and around garden (if picking flowers in garden they need to ask first, wildflowers outside of garden are fair game)

• Brush flowers with paint and make impressions on paper

• Garden Taste Test Tour (10 minutes)

• Go around the garden and let the kids try what is in season

 

Rain Day Activities

 

Vermicompost/Worm Bin

• See program write-up

 

Deconstruct Your Lunch (https://farmtoschooltogo.wordpress.com/lessons/deconstruct-your-lunch/)

• Where does food come from?

• Trace back each ingredient that makes up a hamburger

• Print and laminate pictures. 

• Use velcro and felt board?

• What does each ingredient have in common? (Sun, rain, soil)

• Ask about what kids are having for lunch. Trace back something from their lunches.

• Challenge them to come up with a food item that does not trace back to sun/water/soil

 

Food Groups/MyPlate 

• What are the food groups? What does each food group do?

  • Dairy provides calcium for bones; proteins (meats, fish, nuts, seeds) provides the protein building blocks for muscle; fruits and vegetables help us heal and keep eyes, hair, and skin healthy; and grains (bread, cereal, rice, and pasta) give us energy to work and play. Mention that fats and oils are needed in very small amounts for healthy growth, but too much fat in the diet will cause some health problems. 

• Guess that Food

  • Large paper or reusable grocery bags (this will be the "guessing bag").

  • Blindfolds (optional).

  • A variety of foods (real or plastic foods and food containers, such as a washed yogurt or milk carton) that can be handled by the student, including foods grown and produced in Wisconsin.

  • Large box, cooler, or bag to keep the foods out of sight.

  • Students take turns being the contestants. The contestant leaves the room while a food is selected by the teacher, shown to the class, and put in the guessing bag. The contestant returns to the class and reaches into the bag (wearing a blindfold or without looking) and tries to guess what food they have grabbed. The rest of the class could help by giving clues. Clues can include what plant part, as discussed in previous Six Plant Part lessons.

  • When each food is pulled out of the bag, have the class decide the food group to which it belongs. Students should tell why each food goes where they put it. If it is a plant, have students also classify the plant part.

  • As each food is placed in its group, discuss what each food does for our bodies. Have students identify if the food is grown and/or processed in Wisconsin.

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Laura Aprill
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Thank you for sharing. Starting a youth garden program from scratch is daunting. Seeing other's curriculums is a huge help to us newbies.

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Rachel Schwartz
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