How to start a garden at your school and resources to incorporate it into your classroom curriculum.

Tips for creating your own outdoor classroom full of ideas for making the most out of your outdoor learning space for preschoolers.

What do you do with a low-income school, a few donated garden boxes, and no funding for plants or supplies? To this question, teachers Debbie Rutledge-Lockyear and Janet White’s response was confident. You make it work. When they received the garden boxes, the teachers began dreaming of creating a community garden where they could give their […]

Today is the first day of Spring so I’d like to discuss school gardens. I always wanted to have a school garden, and I found the perfect place for it, but it never happened, mainly because I just didn’t have the time to add such an undertaking to my schedule of teaching more than five grade levels every year. So when I decided this year to volunteer at a local school, I jumped at the chance to work with the teacher who maintained the school garden there. (Links and info in this post updated on 4/3/21.) Source: The ESL Nexus There are so many benefits to having a school garden! For ELLs, especially those at lower levels of language proficiency, working in a school garden means they can participate just as much as other students because the tasks are hands-on and visual. And if you plant some crops that are used in the cultures of your ELLs, it shows that you value those cultures and gives those students and their families a chance to share their knowledge and make them feel a part of the school community. Read on to find out: a) why a school garden is a good thing, b) resources for creating and maintaining a school garden, and c) where you can obtain funding for your own school garden. Source: The ESL Nexus Benefits of School Gardens 1) Students learn where their food comes from – for students in cities who aren’t familiar with farming, this can be very illuminating. 2) Students interact with nature by spending time outdoors and seeing insects and worms in the soil and as the plants grow. 3) Students learn teamwork because they have to work cooperatively to make the garden a success and students who don’t normally work with each other can be grouped together to develop their social skills. 4) Students learn patience because once seeds or seedlings are planted, they have to wait for them to grow and students can’t force the plants to sprout faster than nature intended. 5) Students learn math and science concepts – they are so many tie-ins to curricula for students of all ages it’s impossible to list them all here but recording observations, formulating hypotheses, measuring units, learning about nutrition, graphing results and calculating percentages are a few of them. 6) Students can do writing activities such as writing poetry, writing a description of a plant, writing how-to pieces about creating the garden, writing personal narratives about their experience with the garden, comparing and contrasting two different vegetables, writing about what a vegetable or herb tastes like, creating a recipe book for the foods that were grown, creating timelines about the growing process, and writing letters about their school garden. 7) Students can develop research skills by searching for information about school gardens, by finding out which crops are best suited to their region of the country, and by reading about how particular vegetables and herbs are used in other cultures. 8) Students can learn about geography and other cultures by planting vegetables and herbs cultivated in other countries. 9) Students from different ethnic backgrounds can share their cultures when crops that are common in their cuisines are cultivated, and this can also help foster appreciation for people from those cultures. 10) Students can develop multimedia skills by creating videos, podcasts, photo exhibits, posters, and oral presentations about their school garden. 11) The student-parent (or guardian) connection can be deepened when the families of the students working in the garden are involved – if some families have gardening experience they can help create and maintain the garden, families from immigrant and refugee backgrounds can share their knowledge of gardening and grow “ethnic” foods in part of the garden, families can show how to cook various vegetables and use herbs, and families can be invited to a feast with the students after harvesting the food. Resources about School Gardens * U.S. Department of Agriculture: Information an all aspects, from planning through sustaining a school garden program. * National Agriculture in the Classroom: Lesson plans, resources, information about conferences, and more. * Slow Food USA: Research-based rationale for implementing a school garden. * KidsGardening: All about designing, starting, and maintaining a school garden. * Growing Minds: Resources for starting a school garden, related lesson plans based on the Common Core State Standards, and information on applying for a grant if you are working in their region. * Let's Move: A checklist for getting started with a school garden. * Western Growers Foundation Collective School Garden Network: Information on the benefits of school gardens, how to plan and fund a school garden, planting a school garden, teaching with a school garden, and harvesting and eating the produce from an edible school garden; also includes grant opportunities for schools in Arizona and California. * Good, Clean and Fair School Garden Curriculum, from Slow Food USA: Lessons for all elementary and secondary students that align with Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards. Funding Sources Application deadlines for grants from many organizations for funding a spring garden have passed but the following opportunities are still available: * Bonnie Plants 3rd Grade Cabbage Program: Apply by February 15th. * Captain Planet ecoSolution Grants: Two cycles: a) Apply between September 15th and January 15th; b) Apply between March 15th and July 15th. * Project Learning Tree Green Works Grants: No information about applications for 2021 but the website has helpful info about gardening. * Wild Ones Lorrie Otto Seeds for Education Grant: Program is currently suspended but if it resumes, applications will be available in July with a deadline of October 15, 2021 at midnight. The resources below include lists of the organizations, some of which are mentioned above, as well as many more whose deadlines have already passed. Some of the organizations are included in more than one of these sources listed below: * From Community Groundworks: Links to 18 grant opportunities plus links to resources about implementing school gardens. * From KidsGardening: Links to 20 grants that fund school gardens. Also offers a newsletter with free gardening activities for students. Having worked as an agricultural extension agent in the Peace Corps, I know well the joys of planting something and watching it grow. And although a school garden involves a lot of initial work, the benefits it brings to ELLs and all students is, as Helen Mirren affirms, certainly worth it.

Thursday, November 7 is Outdoor Classroom Day! How do you learn outside? Check out 10 of our best resources to take your lessons outdoors and into nature!

Transform your science and math, reading and writing, imaginative play, and arts and crafts all through garden-based activities. The Garden Classroom offers a whole year of outdoors play and learning ideas, however big or small your outdoor space – and comes with a lovely, free gift. Welcome to The Garden Classroom Your garden, no matter its […]

Sit spots for outdoor learning and quiet nature reflection in upper elementary and middle school classrooms.

These science games are an interactive way to get students learning outdoors. There's so much to learn from going out and observing nature!

Easy forest school activities, done-for-you forest school lesson plans and ready-made nature curriculum: save time and teach better!

Spending time in the garden can awaken the senses of touch, smell, and taste, and attune a child to the subtler sights and sounds of nature.

For most of the school year, you might be cooped up in your classroom thanks to mother nature. The winter months can certainly drag on. However, when spring comes around and the weather forecast predicts sunny days and fresh air, you have a perfect opportunity to take advantage of outdoor learning activities. The outdoor learning

Outdoor learning is a great way to connect with nature and have fun. Forest School activities can incorporate art, craft, science, sensory play, and s

Turn every recess into an adventure!

Ask any herbalist just beginning their journey into herbal education, and everyone I've met says they wish they'd been exposed to the wonders of plants as a child. All those days spent carefree playing in the

We are super excited that our dear friend, Cathy James, has a lovely new book out! It is called The Garden Classroom (affiliate link).It is full of math,

Open wide, come outside, it's playtime! Whether you have a cute courtyard or a rolling lawn, your kiddo will love having their own backyard play space...

Get ready for back to school with all NurtureStore’s free forest school printables and forest school lesson plans. Free Back To School Printables for Forest School NurtureStore is your teaching fairy godmother! We make awesome, inspiring lessons your children will never forget – and all the planning and prep is done for you. […]

For this week’s Montessori Classroom Showcase Series, it is my pleasure to introduce you to Lauren from the Creo School in Arizona. I have been admiring her photographs in the Montessori teachers Facebook group for the past year and I am so happy that she has agreed to share them on our blog! Lauren has been […]

Outdoor Learning Activities for kids to do in the garden! Learning literacy and numeracy outdoors in the garden!

Save time using these ready-made forest school lesson plans, including outdoor learning lessons in math, science, literacy, wellbeing & more

Well it’s March which means we are thinking spring thoughts here is Wisconsin and hoping for warmer days soon. So although it is too early to do any planting outside, we decided to start learning about plants so we’re ready to head outside as soon as we get a taste of warm spring air. […]

Spring is almost here --- time to wake up from my hibernation and get these little cubs of mine outside! The warm sunshine never fails to make me want to spruce up our outdoor play spaces. We like to keep outdoor play, well, natural I suppose. So when I am planning outdoor play spaces for

At Hand Made Places, we’ve created a free guide to designing sensory gardens for school playgrounds for unusual and inclusive school gardening club ideas.

Looking for awesome shapes worksheets for kindergarten and games to use in your classroom? This pack is filled with hands-on activities and no-prep worksheets to help children learn about and use shapes.

Our SEL Department developed a Peace Path that students can use in the classroom to help resolve conflict with their peers. You can take ...

Gather your twigs and leaves and use these fantastic ideas for hands-on forest school math ideas for autumn. Forest school math activities for autumn Here’s a collection of forest school math activities that use real twigs, leaves and seeds to engage children in hands-on math. Keep a basket of leaves, twigs, acorns, and […]

A practival guide to running a forest school with over 40 lesson plans for forest school activities and useful forest school printables.

Welcome to Montessori Nature! I am delighted that your path led you here. I am committed to supporting the incredible teachers and parents who dedicate their time and effort to shaping the minds of our

Students paint rocks inspired by popular children's book to create a colorful landscape design,

Share the Sweetness2316 6 45SharesTaking on the Composting adventure with Toddlers can be a daunting feat. It certainly helps to do your research before you get started. In my search for resources before planning the Toddler School Unit on gardening and composting I {of course} dove into the depths of Pinterest. I knew I wanted our compost… Read More Building our Compost Bin for Toddler School

A music wall is a great educational opportunity to introduce children to music or sounds. Construct one at your yard with our comprehensive guide!

Otto idee per trasformare una giornata nel verde in un'occasione didattica divertente

STEM Bins for Elementary Students “I’m finished! What do I do now?” How many times during our teaching day do we hear these words from our students? Oftentimes, it is much too often, and students are provided a handful of the same options to keep them busy until our next transition. Sometimes students are instructed...

Tucked away in the courtyard of Escanaba Upper Elementary is a school of wooden fish created by students. The piece was completed last spring, and this year marks the first year that students can view the fish outside their classroom windows.

Have you ever had live creatures in your classroom? There is something quite magical about having a living, breathing part of nature in the classroom to inspire some deep thinking. Beyond the obvio…

The Classroom Gardener is a hands-on, cross-curricular school gardening program with resources that teach to the big ideas in BC's redesigned curriculum!