Growing Together: Open Forum

Katie, looks like you have a handfull. I have a few suggestions based on the fact that I had 18 kids last semester.  Choose the children that really love Gardening

to help you with various stations. Equip the stations with interesting things to do like a clay project, making a poster board with pictures of plant expectation progress. Have one 

take pics once a week for a visual of growth. Have them trace their hands, cut out, and color for the board. Do terrariums in a 16 oz bottle. Divide up the beds, show them how

to plant seeds and make the beds their responsibility to water, fertilize and monitor. Set up a white board with a clear plan everyday. You can do it.

Do the students chose to be there or is this a mandatory class? How long is the class and how often are you meeting? I work with middle schoolers that often have little to no experience in the garden when they first start. Some like being in the dirt and some don't so you'll need a variety of tasks for them to do when you are not doing whole group instruction. Setting up checklists and even mini checklists is a good way to give kids a task if they have to do independent work. To start- every student should know how to water, weed, read a seed packet, and plant a seed. Once those basics are covered with everyone, you should be able to divide those tasks with what the students prefer. Students like having autonomy so let them come up with a planting plan for each bed and have them maintain it individually or in groups of 3-4. Whole group lessons that can turn into individual tasks later would be things like composting/worm composting, pest management without the use of harsh sprays, pruning/harvesting, etc. Once things are ready to be harvested, plan to have some days where you are preparing or cooking with that food, as not all gardening lessons have to be strictly "in the garden". 

Hi Katie,

Thank you for sharing! I can only offer what has worked for me in the past! Seventh and eighth grade is a great, but can be a high-paced age group to work with in the gardens. I find that offering a consistent and dependable routine in the garden works to regulate youth.  If you can incorporate choice of activity, choice of care task, or choice of watering type (hose or watering can), these types of choices will help regulate youth without you needing to step in with behavior responses. Because of the difference of a classroom type that the garden is, you have to create structure from the beginning. Meeting outside the garden space if possible or at the very entrance before the start of class and greeting students to ask them how they're feeling today helps them to identify their feelings before class begins and for you to gauge where they are at equally. This can be an informal how are you feeling to the group or something more formal like zones of regulation charts.

Start with gathering at the beginning or at the entrance of the garden as a routine of entering the garden space collectively before you break youth off into their beds or stations. Assign and introduce the tasks and options next. When you lead instruction or want to teach a lesson, you gather the group together or around a bed. When you want the youth to work on a project or task, you float between stations or groups to redirect, align, answer questions, and assist. Rotate through the small groups as they go about their tasks and redirect, offer insight, or guidance.

Have a task available for students to re-regulate or gather themselves if necessary and offer choice if needed to be to promote brief re-regulation. In the garden, that can be a tasks like watering, weeding, planting seeds in pots, watering seedlings, rotating seedling trays, sweeping up if in greenhouse, composting, cleaning off pavers, etc. If a student can't stay on task, offering them a choice of another garden-related task often helped re-align engagement. I try to offer choice whenever possible, which helps regulate behavior by allowing youth to feel a sense of ownership over their garden, plant, or project. This also means the choice to take a break from gardening briefly and engage in something that helps them take care of themselves too. 

25 kids, 18 beds to me would work best if you divide into stations and tasks in the gardening space. By encouraging choice, you encourage participation. By implementing a routine, you incorporate a familiarity and structure to a classroom that is already so different than their others. Additionally, making gardening group rules together the first day of classes often helps in establishing what we do and don't do in the gardening space. These can also be posted in the garden or painted in the garden :)

Hope all this helps,

Kalie