Activity: Fruit and Veggie Ads

Companies constantly market to children, trying to get them to try sugary snacks and treats.  Students can easily recall and recite products' jingles, slogans, or spokesperson.

In this activity, students will use their own powers of persuasion to create advertisements for items from their school garden.

Assignment:

• Begin with a discussion of advertising and persuasion. 
• Talk about how marketers try to convince their audience to try new products.
• Show examples of advertisements and ask questions, such as:
• What claims does the advertisement make?
• What imagery does it use to sell the product?
• In addition to the actual product, what attributes (i.e. friendship, happiness, comfort, etc) is the ad trying to sell?
• Who is the advertisement targeting? 
• Is it effective? Why or why not?
• Each student or team will each choose, or be assigned, a fruit or vegetable.  
• Students will research the health benefits of their particular fruit/veggie.
• Each student or team will create their own advertisement to convince and persuade their peers to try their fruit/veggie.  Students are encouraged to be creative by making their own video, print ad, or jingle.
• Students will present their finished advertisement to the class. 
• Students will vote or rank the persuasiveness of each advertisement.

Alternatives:

• Students can also create public service announcements boasting the importance of eating fruits and veggies each day. 

Activity: Dirt Made My Lunch

Recently when speaking with a first grade teacher who had started a classroom gardening project, she told that one of her inquisitive students asked, "Why can't we just plant pizza?"

While an amusing question, the teacher used this as a teaching moment using the following activity.

Materials:

• Pictures of food items.  (You will need pictures of each ingredient and the corresponding steps it takes as you trace it to the soil)
• Cheeseburger
• Bun: flour, wheat, soil
• Burger: beef, cow, grass, soil
• Cheese: milk, cow, grass, soil
• Pickle: vinegar, cucumber, cucumber plant, dill plant, soil
• Ketchup: tomato plant, soil
• Pizza
• Dough: flour, wheat, soil
• Cheese: milk, cow, grass, soil
• Tomato Sauce: tomato plant, soil
• Tape or magnets

Activity:

• Draw columns on the board and place each ingredient at the top (i.e. one column for bun, burger, cheese, pickle, and ketchup).
• Hand out the remaining pictures to the students.
• Taking one ingredient at a time, trace it back to the soil.  Have the student with the corresponding item place it in the correct column.
• For example: Cheese comes from milk, which comes from a cow, which eats grass, which comes from the soil
• Trace other foods to the soil!

The teacher I spoke with said that her students LOVED this activity! They wanted to trace all sorts of foods to the soil and their garden!

Resource: Great School Garden Lesson Plans

Why reinvent the wheel when other fabulous teachers have created wonderful garden related lesson plans?

I found this fantastic website, which includes lesson plans, broken down by grade levels.  And, even better, the lesson plans identify which academic standards they adhere to! 

Click here to check it out!

Do you have your own favorite school garden lesson plans or resources?  Share your wealth of knowledge in the comment section below!

Happy Gardening and Happy Learning!

Why Start a School Garden

Starting a School Garden on Prezi

Click "Full Screen" and "Autoplay" to view a short slideshow on why you should start a school garden!

Song: "Do You Know the Parts of Plants?"

On this gloomy and potentially snowy day in May, here is a little ditty for you to sing with your students to help them learn the parts of plants.

Do You Know the Parts of Plants?
Courtesy of Got Dirt? Wisconsin
[Sung to: "Do you know the Muffin Man"]

Do you know the parts of plants, parts of plants, parts of plants?
Do you know the parts of plants that grow in your garden?

The seeds get planted in the ground, planted in the ground, planted in the ground.
The seeds get planted in the ground, to grow food in my garden.

The roots hold the plant in place, the plant in place, the plant in place.
The roots hold the plant in place and give it food and water.

The stems bring water to the leaves, water to the leaves, water to the leaves.
The stems bring water to the leaves and reach toward the sun.

The leaves make food for the plant, food for the plant, food for the plant.
The leaves make food for the plant and help it grow in the garden.

The fruit on the plant is yummy to eat, yummy to eat, yummy to eat.
The fruit on the plant is yummy to eat and help me grow like my garden.

Now I know the parts of the plants, parts of the plants, parts of the plants.
Now I know the parts of the plants that grow in my garden!

Grant: 2010 Subaru Healthy Sprouts Awards

Subaru, in conjunction with The National Gardening Association, is now accepting applications for the 2010 Subaru Healthy Sprouts Awards.

Awards will be given to 30 schools and organizations planning to start a garden in 2011.  A minimum of 15 students ages 3-18 must participate in the garden.  Applications must demonstrate the "relationship between the garden program and education related to environmental, nutrition and hunger issues in the United States."

As stated on its website, grant recipients will receive,

• "a $500 gift certificate to the Gardening with Kids catalog and online store for basic youth gardening supplies and supporting educational material.
• NGA's Eat a Rainbow Kit, chock full of engaging taste education and nutrition lessons
• a literature package from NGA"

For more information, click here, and to receive an application, click here. 

Applications are due by Oct. 1, 2010.

Apply today to make that school garden dream a reality!

Thank You Teachers

In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, below is a poem expressing our gratitude and thanks for everything you do!

A Teacher for All Seasons
--Joanna Fuchs

A teacher is like Spring,
Who nurtures new green sprouts,
Encourages them and leads them,
Whenever they have doubts.

A teacher is like Summer,
Whose sunny temperament
Make studying a pleasure,
Preventing discontent.

A teacher is like Fall,
With methods crisp and clear,
Lessons of bright colors
And a happy atmosphere.

A teacher is like Winter,
While it's snowing hard outside,
Keeping students comfortable,
As a warm and helpful guide.

Teacher, you do all these things,
With a pleasant attitude;
You're a teacher for all seasons,
And you have my gratitude!