Activity: Seed Tape

Here's a simple and fun way to plant seeds in your youth garden!

Supplies:
1) Paper towels cut into strips 3in x 12in
2)White glue
3) Ruler
4) Pencil
5) Small seeds (ex. lettuce, carrot)

Directions:
1. With a ruler and a pencil draw small dots every one inch in the center of the paper towel strip.

2. Place a drop of glue in the center of the dots.

3. Place one seed on each drop of glue

4. Allow glue to dry completely before moving or storing strips.

5. Plant seed tapes 1/2 inch deep in garden. And wait for them to grow!

Social Studies and Gardens

Gardens are truly a multi-disciplinary project. If you're looking for some new ways to incorporate your school garden into social studies, visit the Kids Gardening website to find some great lesson plans and activities.

ESL Activities

Working with ESL students and don't know how to coordinate vegetables into their lessons? Click on the link below to find some great ideas on the topic!

http://bit.ly/9qGCdi

Avocado Activity

Some of your student may not be familiar with an avocado, so this is a great activity to introduce them to something new!

Select a soft, ripe avocado. Peel it and spread on saltine crackers and have them sample it. Show the children the size of the seed inside the fruit. The large size may surprise them.

Wash the pit to remove the brown papery skin and any flesh residue.

Poke three toothpicks evenly around the middle (equator) of the pit. Use those tooth picks to support the pit on the rim of a clear glass or plastic cup with the pointed end up.

Fill the water so that the bottom third of the pit is covered in water. Place the clear glass in a bright, warm location, but out of direct sun. Change the water once a week.

In a few weeks, the pit will split open, the roots will grow out the bottom, and a shoot will emerge from the top.

Activity: Food Bingo

This is a simple and fun variation on the traditional Bingo game.

Materials:
1)Make Bingo cards with different types of fruits and vegetables; use lesser known plants so kids can learn about a brand new fruits and veggies!
--For example, try using kiwis and kohlrabi instead of potatoes and apples.
--Make enough cards for the number of children in your class.
3) Cards with the names of all the fruits and vegetables used on your bingo cards for the caller to shout out.
4)Cards with the letters (B-I-N-G-O)

Activity
1)Have the caller draw a letter and a fruit/veggie card. They will call something like “B-Eggplant”

2) When a child gets a row, they call out Bingo.

3) If possible, have these “strange” fruits and veggies available for students to sample after the game.

Activities to Curb Cabin Fever

Now that winter is upon us, you may be thinking that there aren’t many plant activities that your students can participate in. However, there are lots of fun ideas to get students thinking about gardens, even when there’s snow on the ground.

Watch seeds sprout! Line a glass or plastic jar with a damp paper towel and insert several zucchini or lima bean seeds between the glass and the towel. Place a lid on the jar, leave it by a sunny spot and check the towel every day to make sure it’s still moist. Seeds should sprout in a few days.

Make your very own worm farm! Line a large cardboard box with a garbage bag. Fill it with soil, organic matter and a few warms. Keep it shady and moist, but not too wet. Add vegetable scraps to feed the worms. The worm farm will help teach students about the interdependence of plants and organisms as they watch the worms turn vegetable scraps into valuable compost.

Read a book! Telling a story about gardening to students during winter will get them excited for the growing (and eating) process later in the year.

Start a microfarm! You can grow microgreens (immature plants) for a tasty salad indoors all year long. The entire gardening process only takes about 3-4 weeks. For more information on building a microfarm, visit the Got Dirt? website at http://www.gotdirtwisconsin.org/.

Activity: Thanksgiving Comparisons

Here’s an activity where students are able to compare food eaten during the first Thanksgiving compared to what they eat for Thanksgiving today. Under the activity instructions is an overview of the first Thanksgiving meal.

Materials:
Paper to draw a Venn Diagram

Activity:
1) Discuss the history of the first thanksgiving and the food served there.

2) Have students draw a Venn Diagram and have them label one circle “First Thanksgiving” and the other circle “Thanksgiving Today”.

3)Students should write foods that they learned were eaten at the first Thanksgiving and foods that are eaten today. The center of the Venn diagram should include foods that were eaten then and are still eaten today.

It is believed that the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians celebrated the very first Thanksgiving feast after harvest in 1621 in Plymouth, MA. It was held as a religious outdoor festival, where hundreds of people gathered to partake in the festivities. It was originally held as a three day celebration.

Historians believe that the menu consisted of venison, roasted turkey, wild fowl including ducks, geese and swans, fish, and lobsters. Vegetables served included pumpkins, squash, beans, dried fruits, cranberries, and dried corn. The sugar supply brought over on the Mayflower from England was nearly exhausted by the time of the first Thanksgiving, so it is widely assumed that wheat pudding may have been on of the only sweet dishes served.

The pilgrims used many spices, including cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, pepper, and dried fruit in the meat sauces they prepared. Many of the meats were put on a spit and turned over a fire for six hours. Since ovens were yet to be invented, pies, cakes, and breads most likely were not at the first Thanksgiving table.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Fruit & Veggie Challenge

Looking for a great way to motivate your students to eat their fruits and vegetables? Why not try the Fruit and Vegetable Challenge?

Simply print off the challenge sheets found on the USDA website link below and have students record the number of fruits and vegetables they eat each day.

Consider giving out rewards for eating the most fruit/vegetables or the most diverse fruit/vegetables. You could even give a party when all the students reach a certain number of fruits and vegetables consumed. The possibilities are endless!

http://bit.ly/9aN7eU

Activity: Where Do Your Fruits/Veggies Grow?

In this math and geography lesson, students will recognize where various fruits and vegetables are grown and realize the importance of eating locally.

Materials

• Map
• List of where fruits and vegetables are grown (optional)
• Ruler
• Calculator (optional)
• Pencils

Set up options

• Students can work individually or as teams
• Students can research where fruits/veggies are grown or you can provide a list of for students

Activity

• Using a map, have students calculate the number of miles it takes to ship a fruit/vegetable from where it is grown to your school.
• Have students label the map to identify where the fruit/vegetable is grown.  Using the ruler draw a line from the place of origin to your school.
• Have students use the scale on the map to calculate the number of miles the fruit/vegetable travels.
• Compare and contrast the distance between various items.
• As a class, discuss the importance of growing/buying locally. 
• What is the environmental impact of shipping fruits and vegetables?
• What sorts of fruits/vegetables should students try to buy/grow locally? 
• Are any of these items being grown in your garden?
• What are the advantages/disadvantages of being able to ship these products across the country/world?

To find what fruits and vegetables are local to your state and to others, visit The National Resource Defense Council website. Use this site to create a list of fruits/vegetables and their locations for your students to map. This website also allows you to search by season!

June School Garden Ideas

At the beginning of each month, the Got Dirt? WI blog features a variety of month-specific ways to incorporate your school garden into your classroom.


June means growing season here in Wisconsin.  As your garden begins to burst with produce, incorporate some of these garden activities to keep children excited and interested in the growing process!

June:  National Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Month--What a fabulous theme for the month! Celebrate an entire month of fruits/vegetables from the garden or visit your local farmers' market for more fresh produce.  Try something new each week and broaden your students' horizons.  They may be surprised at what they like!

June 5: World Environment Day--Celebrate environments near and far.  Compare and contrast the environment in your backyard to the environment in another part of the world.  How does the environment impact what you can/cannot grow in your garden?  Draw pictures of what it would look like outside the window at a school in another part of the world.  Hang these windows to the world around your classroom.

June 6: National Gardening Exercise Day--Have fun with this day and take your students outside to run, skip, jump and play in the garden.  They can imitate a plant growing by standing tall and stretching high.  Have students create a garden relay race.  Use a vegetable as a baton or have students balance a vegetable on a spoon.  No matter the activity, have students go outside and enjoy playing among fruits and vegetables!

June 10: Iced Tea Day--Take a break from all that watering, weeding, and gardening to enjoy a nice, cold glass of iced tea!

June 13: Weed Your Garden Day--Make today a work day in the garden.  Teach students the difference between weeds and plants.  Recruit volunteer to give your garden a good weeding so that you have a bountiful harvest!

June 15: Fly a Kite Day--Get outside and enjoy the summer by flying a kite!

June 16: Fresh Veggies Day--A perfect opportunity to pick vegetables from your garden and enjoy a summer snack!  If your vegetables aren't quite ready to be harvested, have each student bring a different type of vegetable to share at snack time.  Find out students' favorite fresh veggie snack!

June 17: Eat Your Vegetables Day--Another wonderful chance to have students try new and unfamiliar vegetables.  Have students tally all the vegetables they ate for the day.  Create a graph as a class to find out the most popular and/or most unusual vegetables eaten.

June 18: International Picnic Day--Go on a picnic with your class.  You can pack healthy foods from your garden or go on your picnic in the garden.  There's nothing like eating among fruits and veggies!

June 20: Father's Day--Give Dad a hug!

June 21: First Day of Summer

June 25: Eric Carle's Birthday--Read Eric Carle's The Tiny Seed, which beautifully illustrates the lifecycle of a plant.


What garden activities do you have planned for the month of June? Share them below!

School Garden Trivia

Knowledge sprouts in the garden with this trivia activity!

Materials:

• Garden stakes
• Laminated trivia/facts
• Glue

Activity:

• The history and lore of plants provide a great learning opportunity for your young gardeners.  After choosing the types of fruits and vegetables you will plant in your garden, research some fun facts about them.  
• Type or write the facts on small pieces of paper and laminate them.
• Read the facts to students or have them each share a fun fact or story.
• Attach each fact to a garden stake and place it in the garden.   Not only does it help identify what is growing but it offers a little history too.

Check out these great websites for fun facts and stories:

• Heirloom Seeds Garden Trivia
• Examples:
• "Tomatoes were originally thought to be poisonous and did not gain acceptance in the US until 1820, when Colonel Robert Gibbon Johnson ate a basket full of tomatoes on the courthouse steps in Salem, New Jersey on September 26, 1820.  The assembled crowd expected to see the Colonel drop dead.  When he suffered no ill effects, the tomato was on its way to become the most popular vegetable grown by backyard gardeners today!"
• "The radish was eaten during breakfast, lunch and dinner by early American settlers.  By the late eighteenth century, at least ten varieties of radishes were popular in home gardens.  Thomas Jefferson grew eight different varieties in his own gardens at Monticello."
• Ag Day
• Examples:
• "We are eating 900% more broccoli than we did 20 years ago"
• "The bright orange color of carrots tells you they're an excellent source of Vitamin A, which is important for good eyesight, especially at night.  Vitamin A helps your body fight infection and keeps your skin and hair healthy!"

Activity: Chef Chlorophyll

Students will participate in a skit to learn that plants make food through the process of photosynthesis.


Materials:

• Images of the sun, water, and air (available in the "Teaching Tools" section of www.gotdirtwisconsin.org)
• You may choose to substitute props for the images
• Soup pot
• Large spoon

Activity:

• Ask the students how they think that plants eat. 
• Use humans as an analogy.  Humans eat food to get energy.  Have they seen plants eat food?
• Explain that leaves help plants make food through the process called photosynthesis.   
• If humans could make their own food, it would be like making a piece of lasagna in their arm.
• Perform the following skit to illustrate what a plant needs to make food.
• Holding your soup pot and spoon, introduce yourself as Chef Chlorophyll. Tell your students that you live inside the leaves of a plant and are making food to help the plant grow.
• Taste the soup in your pot and explain, “It tastes okay, but it needs a few ingredients.”
• Ask the students what ingredients the plant needs to grow.
• Each time a student answers a correct ingredient (sun, air, and water) give the student the image of the ingredient and allow them to place it in the pot.
• Repeat until all of the ingredients are in the pot.
• Tell students that the soup tastes just right and now the plant can grow big and strong.
• Have students create recipe cards with what plants need to make food.

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!

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!

May School Garden Ideas

It's the beginning of May, which means its time for Monthly School Garden Ideas.  At the beginning of each month, the Got Dirt? WI blog features a variety of month-specific ways to incorporate your school garden into your classroom.

Here are just a few ideas for the month of May.  Enjoy! And share your suggestions below.

• May: National Salad Month--Celebrate salads and fruits and vegetables.  Highlight a new fruit and vegetable each week.  Have students research the origins of fruits and vegetables.  Enjoy a salad with fresh fruits and vegetables.

• May: National Hamburger Month--In a unique spin to this monthly celebration, teach students that all of our food comes from soil and the Earth.  Break down the elements of the a hamburger and trace them to the soil.  (Example: Hamburger>Beef>Cow>Grass>Soil; or Bun: Flour>Wheat>Soil).  Listen to the song "Dirt Made My Lunch."

• May 2-8: Compost Awareness Week--Start a classroom composting project.  (Check out these website for helpful resources Journey to Forever or The Adventures of Herman the Worm)

• May 2-8: National Postcard Week: Find a school garden in another state and exchange postcards.  Tell each other about your garden and what you are planting.

• May 2-8: Teacher Appreciation Week: Thank you teachers for everything you do! Thank you for starting school gardens and changing the lives of your students!

• May 4: Bird Day--Make birdhouses or birdfeeders for your garden.  Talk about the types of birds that will visit your garden.

• May 4: National Weather Observers' Day--What is the weather like in your garden?  Draw a picture!

• May 7: National Family Child Care Provider's Day: Thank you child care providers for everything you do! Thank you for starting school gardens and for changing the lives of your children!

• May 9: Mother's Day: Celebrate mom! Invite her to your garden.  Decorate a container and plant mom's favorite fruit or veggie. 

• May 20: Pick Strawberries Day--Although it may be a bit early to pick strawberries in Wisconsin, you can still have a strawberry-themed day.  Have students wear red, eat strawberries for a snack, make strawberry smoothies, draw pictures of strawberries, or read a book about strawberries.

• May 23-30: National Backyard Games Week: Play games in your garden! Do a relay race, go on a scavenger hunt, or simply enjoy being in your garden!

What school garden activities do you have planned for May?

Great School Garden Resource

While searching the web for school garden resources, I stumbled upon Florida Bureau of Curriculum and Instruction's website.  Not only does Florida's Board of Education support school gardens but they have a fabulous list of resources for educators.

Rather than reinvent the wheel, I encourage you to check out their website for inspiration.

In particular, I loved the page about lesson plans.  One of my favorite ideas--the "Mix-A-Salad" Game--was in the "Team Nutrition Fruits and Vegetables Lesson Plans for Preschool Children."

1. Children stand in a circle to form a pretend bowl.
2. Each child is given a picture of a fruit or vegetable.
3. The leader says "I'm going to make a salad...and in my salad I am going to have _________ (name of a fruit or vegetable) that is _________ (say an action). 
• Suggested actions include:
• Twirling
• Jumping
• Running
• Hopping
• Waving
• Flying
• Dancing
• Clapping
• Kicking
• Rolling their arms
• Walking on tip-toes
• Splashing
4. After 3-4 fruits and vegetables are called, the leader says "Let's stir up the salad!" Then all those in the center scramble around, and all those forming the bowl make stirring motions until the leader says, "Stop! Let's eat."
5. All the children fall down, rub their tummies, and say "Yum, that was a good salad!" 
6. Play again calling different fruits or vegetables to the salad bowl.

What a fun and wonderful activity!

Thanks Florida Board of Education for the great resources and for your support of school gardens!

Activity: Growing Potatoes and Carrot Tops

Capture the interest and imagination of students by growing carrot tops and potatoes.


Materials

• Toothpicks
• Glass or plastic cup or saucer
• Water
• Sweet Potato or Carrot
• Knife
• Scissors
• Pebbles or pea gravel

Carrots

• Select a fresh carrot that still has the leaves on the top.
• Cut the carrot so that about two inches remain below the top. 
• Trim the leafy greens from the top of the carrot.
• Fill a container with about one inch of pebbles or pea gravel.
• Place the carrot tops, cut side down, in the gravel.  If necessary, add more gravel to hold the carrot tops in place.
• Add water to the container.
• Place the container in a sunny location.
• Ask students to predict what will happen. 
• Will a new carrot form? 
• Will it grow? 
• If so, how big will it get?
• Observe the changes in your carrot.
• Add water as necessary.
• Although the carrot will not form a new root, after a few days leafy greens will start to appear.

Potato

• Place four toothpicks around the middle of a potato.
• Fill a cup with water.
• Taking the potato with the toothpicks, rest the toothpicks on the edge of the cup.  The bottom of the potato should be sitting in the water.
• Place the cup in a sunny location.
• Ask students to predict what will happen. 
• Will a new potato form? 
• Will it grow?
• If so, how big will it get?
• Observe the changes in the potato.
• Add water as necessary so that the bottom of the potato is in the water.
• After a couple of days, roots will start to form in the water and stems and leaves will start to form.

Awesome School Garden Videos

I found this AWESOME website today that features school garden videos!

In particular, be sure to check out clip on Citysprouts.  Using interviews with students, the video shows why school gardens are so important and the impact it has on the students' lives.

And make sure to check out the "Back Pocket" Garden Activities.  These short videos show a variety of fun activities to do in the garden.  I enjoyed "Bug Races"!  It is such a simple activity but just look at how much fun the kids are having!

Click here to check it out!

April School Garden Ideas

At the beginning of each month, the Got Dirt? WI blog features a variety of month-specific ways to incorporate your school garden into your classroom.

April is full of gardening related holidays.   Use some of these ideas below to celebrate your garden.  And don't be afraid to share your own ideas!

• April: National Gardening Month: Celebrate a whole month's worth of gardening related activities.  Visit the National Gardening Association's website for some ideas. 

• April: National Mathematics Education Month: Math and gardening go hand-in-hand.  Measure the heights of plants.  Plant some seeds and estimate how many will grow.  Figure out the percentage of plants that grew.  Use fruits and veggies to demonstrate fractions.  Identify the shapes of the fruits and vegetables.  Estimate the area of a leaf.  Map out your garden and calculate its area.  The possibilities are endless!

• April: Children and Nature Awareness Month:  The goals for this year's events are first to "encourage parents to form their own Nature Clubs for Families.  And second, to invite grandparents and older outdoor enthusiasts to do their part to reconnect children and nature."  For a complete list of events in your area and for some great online resources for teachers, visit the Children and Nature Network's website. 

• April: National Humor Month: Tell gardening and fruit/vegetable jokes and riddles.  For example, What types of vegetables do you find written on a piece of music?  Give up?  Two Beets!

• April 3: Find a Rainbow Day: You may not be able to find a rainbow in the sky on "Find a Rainbow Day" but you can find one in your garden.  Have students identify fruits/veggies that match the colors of the rainbow.

• April 4-10: Garden Week: Have a whole week dedicated to gardening.  Celebrate your garden and start some plants indoors.  Invite a Master Gardener Volunteer to visit your classroom to talk about gardening.

• April 14: Look Up at the Sky Day: Go out to your garden and stare at the clouds.  Have students use their imagination to identify shapes in the clouds.  Drwa a picture of your garden and glue cotton balls to the paper for the clouds.  Don't forget to use this as an opportunity to teach what plants need to grow. 

• April 22: Earth Day:  Celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day by finding ways to help your environment.  Have students sign a pledge to be good stewards of the Earth.

• April 23: National Zucchini Bread Day: Although it's a bit early in Wisconsin to use zucchini from the garden, this is still a great opportunity to cook with fresh produce.  As a class, make zucchini bread and discuss fractions, measurement, and the importance of following a recipe in the right order.  Perhaps this will inspire you to grow zucchini in your garden!

• April 23-25: Global Youth Service Days: Participate in community service.  Donate time to your school or community garden.  Have students create a service project that starts your school garden.  It is a great way to get students involved and ensure that the project gets off the ground.  Check out your Got Dirt? Toolkit for more information about using school gardens as service learning opportunities.

• April 26-30: School Building Week: "Celebrating our nation's school and reinforcing the connection between school facilitates and student learning...School Building Week provides an opportunity to draw national attention to the importance of well planned, healthy, high performance, safe and sustainable schools that enhance student achieve and community vitality."  Click here for more information.  Use this week to evaluation the sustainability of your school and identify areas that need improvement.

• April 27: Tell a Story Day: Read garden and fruit and veggie stories and have children write their own stories.

• April 29: Greenery Day: A day in remembrance of the birthday of Japanese Emperor Hirohito.  The day is a time to commune with nature and be thankful.  Go outside and explore where you will put your garden.  Start to prepare your garden for planting.  Have students imagine what it will look like in the summer when everything is growing.  As a class, research some of the cultural differences between the United States and Japan (for example: what grows in a typical Japanese garden?).

There is plenty going on during the month of April.  What do you plan to do to celebrate these fun holidays?  Share your ideas below!