Measure and plot existing plant’s drip-lines and other obstacles.

Start seedlings in trays over winter (keep in mind sun, soil and water requirements).

Use actual prices and tax and/or delivery charges when calculating plant costs for the garden design.

Add other materials to your garden area, such as: brick pavers, flagstone, limestone edging, cobblestone, river rock (all measures, pea size to 3-inch) crushed brick and associated materials - for example, weed barrier, sand and lime rock. This would include pricing per square foot or ton or cubic yard. Usually each measure provides an approximate amount of coverage. Contact your local garden center for information and pricing in your area.

Wooden plant marker

Add bird houses, benches, bird baths, etc., to your garden. Try making a gourd bird house using instructions provided by FamilyFun.

Incorporate garden terms into your vocabulary and spelling exercises. (see the glossary page)

 

Create a garden "Web" site by building a frame suitable for spider web building amongst your plants.

MAKE A SCARECROW! Hammer two narrow boards in a cross. Ask students to bring child-size shirt, pants, shoes, mittens, and accessories. Head can be an old T-shirt stuffed and rubberbanded.  For a detailed lesson plan on a scarecrow project for students age 5 and up that requires three or four 30-45-lessons to complete - CLICK HERE.

 

Tuck a bulb here and there to have some early spring flowers.

Gather seeds from marigolds, cotton, native wildflowers, sunflowers to plant next year, or make a seed identification book, or use in a drawing or collage.

 

Add a sundial. Make your own sundial out of a terra-cotta plant saucer.

 

Press flowers. Lay a sheet of cardboard on ground. Add two sheets of newspaper. Lay flowers separately and cover with two more sheets of newspaper. Keep adding layers and top off with another sheet of cardboard. Tie up with rubber bands or string and place under something heavy. Try to store pressed flowers in a cool, dry place. Wait 10 days then take apart carefully. Click on this link for a flower pressing lesson plan for students 5 and up that requires two 30-minute sessions.

 

Dry flowers head down in two parts cornmeal and one part borax. These flowers can then be used in bird wreaths or arrangements.

Use the garden as a multicultural study to reflect your class' ethnic backgrounds by studying plant origins and continents, plant migration, and gardening techniques from around the world.

Build a school community compost area and start composting the vegetable and fruit scraps from lunches.

Adopt a plant and keep a journal on it (measurements, characteristics, what the class likes about it, drawings..). You may want to work with a sick plant in the school and then revive with worm castings, light and regular watering.

Do outdoor experiments found in many teacher resource books.  A favorite is to bury a nylon stocking stuffed with natural and plastic materials. Let the students decide what goes in the bag. Dig up again in three months. Observe changes.

Expand interest in Iowa by researching state garden and agricultural products and raise them in your garden.

Track weather information. Check the temperature and graph regularly. After a rain, check the rain gauge. Observe and discuss how weather affects your garden. For current weather conditions visit WeatherView which collects data from Iowa's aviation and road weather information systems.

Make a note card by folding white construction paper in half. Place dried flowers on front and cover with a sheet of clear contact paper. Allow students to write a note to someone special.

Make a book out of resealable plastic bags. Collect treasures outside and label what they are on each page.

Start something unusual in a resealable plastic bag. Moisten paper towel with very clean hands and slide into resealable plastic bag. Add three seeds (beans, corn, raw peanut, cotton) and transfer to garden when it warms up outside.

Provide the birds with nesting materials. Hang a mesh bag on a fence in an out of way place, and weave in a variety of materials (hair from brushes, yarn, string, dried grass). Watch these materials show up in nests.

Follow the life cycle of a Monarch butterfly by raising a caterpillar. Release the butterfly in the native plant garden.

Collect soils from different spots. Put in clear plastic cups and compare texture, color, and how it absorbs water.

Make flower prints with real flowers dipped in tempera and then put on paper.

 

Make a seed viewer that will allow students to observe how the life of a plant begins.

 

Find all the wonderful books on gardens in the library and go Plant Crazy. For suggestions on reference books for teachers and children's books go to this link.

Incorporating structures into your garden

Garden art and structures are used to create focal points in your garden. Benches, statuary, birdbaths, arbors and other structures add interest and charm to the garden. If your classroom’s garden is large enough for a winding path, place these items at different turns along the walkway so visitors are always looking further into the garden to see what beautiful surprise will turn up next.

Simple Garden Structures: Grades K-2

This age group is less concerned with permanence and more with the process of creation. Thus, bird-feeders from old styrofoam trays or pinecones, birdbaths from plastic jugs or trashcan lids, and plant labels cut from bleach bottles and decorated are very satisfying projects. Pre-cast paving stones could be painted with designs and set out in the garden for a child-oriented path; you could stencil on a base design (such as a simple bug or butterfly) and have the children decorate the stencils (in the case of butterflies, you could teach the lesson of symmetry by requiring symmetrical designs). You could make a garden flag to set out in the garden for marking wind direction, or make some other simple sign to mark your garden.

Building Smaller-scale Garden Structures: Grades 3-5

With this age group, concentrate on smaller-scale projects that can be worked on individually. This would include things like sundials, birdfeeders or nesting boxes. You could build bird boxes from cedar 1-by-8s, or you could grow gourds and use the harvest to make birdhouses.

A purple martin colony could be supported through the use of birdhouse gourds appropriately mounted. You could also use gourds as garden harvest buckets (if the gourds are large).

In addition to structures, your class can design and make other garden objects. Plant labels can be made from old bleach bottles or milk jugs with scissors and markers. Make the markers about 2 inches by 3 inches.

Like the students at Edward Elementary, you could create concrete stepping stones with pizza boxes as the concrete forms, paint designs on pre-cast concrete pavers, or do some combination of the two.  

Wind spinners could be made from 1-liter soda bottles. Banners could be made illustrating the themes of the garden or marking garden entrances.  If you have two adults to assist with the holding and tying, you could make a series of 3-foot teepees to support peas.

With fifth graders, you could have the students help roll out 6-inch by 6-inch grid "hogwire" or agricultural fence and stretch it between metal fence posts that the kids can help to drive into the ground to create a plant trellis fence.

Building Garden Structures: Grades 6-12

This is a great age group for building, and building structures gives you the opportunity to teach about group dynamics and cooperation to reach a larger goal.

If you have an industrial arts class at your school, enlist the classroom instructor and his/her students to help with construction of your structures. Structures that enhance the garden are things like simple benches, side tables for holding seedling packs or harvested plants, sundials, bird-feeders or bird boxes, and simple fences and trellises.

If you have a source of small saplings or bamboo, you can easily build arbors and trellises. One great shelter idea is to create a half-teepee and use it as a vine trellis and seating nook.

Writing and Journaling

A garden or field journal is an excellent forum to encourage students of any age to write every day or every week. Because the garden is in a constant state of change, it inspires observation, contemplation, and writing.  The gardening process itself has many steps that require documentation.

The journal allows for the introduction of new vocabulary, composition and handwriting practice.  For early elementary students with limited writing skills, the journal can be used to record the student’s drawings of their observations and visions for the garden.

Students attending parochial, public or home schools are eligible to become members of the Enviro-Explorers Kids’ Club. There is NO COST to become a member, and students receive all sorts of fun stuff.  Items provided to new members include a field journal, pencil and crayons that will work great for this project.   

Students can expand their writing beyond the garden journal by writing creative stories using the garden as the central theme, or writing garden poetry, limericks, haiku, and acrostics.

Final write-ups can detail the class's garden-related investigations and experiments.  Plant histories might be researched and written before presentation to the class in an oral report.

Plays based on the garden's theme might be written, practiced and presented to the student body. A garden newsletter could be produced and distributed to other classes, parents, and the community. The students' ownership of the garden makes it something they enjoy writing about.