Spring Garden Lesson Plans
from the
Marion-Polk Food Share
Youth Garden Program
For 1 st through 5th Grade Students
Spring Garden Lessons
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Marion-Polk Food Share Youth Garden Program
Spring Garden Lessons
INTRODUCTION
The overall objective of these spring lessons is to help youth understand what goes into planning a
garden. Topics include why we garden, how to plan and design, the role of living organisms like worms
and bees in gardening, transplanting and direct seeding. Spring can also be a time to beautify the
garden, and so time is spent both in bed maintenance and creating garden art.
Each of these lessons could be expanded if time allows, and vary by length. Depending on your site
specifics and time frame, choose those activities that best suit your needs.
LESSON BASICS
Each lesson plan begins with “Introduction & Weather Log.” In the first lesson, students will create a
garden journal, including a place to record the weather (e.g., temperature, sky appearance, current
precipitation, wetness, wind). If your garden class is meeting indoors, especially during the early part of
Spring, you may or may not have a convenient place to check the weather, especially at both the
beginning and end of the session. You may always choose to incorporate journaling into the week’s
activity, giving youth specific topics about which to journal.
Each lesson finishes with “Wrap-Up & Taste.” Ideally, you have time to come back together and ask the
class what they’ve done that day, and taste a new vegetable, even if it is something that is prepped that
they can grab on the way out the gate/door.
Sample questions to use for tasting:
• How many of you have never tasted this tasting before? ­
• After the sampling: Did you like the tasting?
• Who would like to grow it?
Food Preparation: Before preparing tasting, wash hands thoroughly with soap and water. Wash cutting
boards, dishes, utensils, sinks and counter tops with hot soapy water before and after each food item. It
is a good practice to soak kitchen items in a weak bleach solution (1 tsp. liquid bleach per quart of
water) and rinse them thoroughly between uses. Make sure all of the students wash their hands (or use
hand sanitizer) before you serve a tasting.
Tasting Tips: Tasting a new fruit or vegetable is one of the most memorable aspects of the Garden Club
experience for the kids, and often one of their favorite parts of the class. You may be surprised how
excited students are to try a new food. However, some may be wary or uninterested in tasting new
fruits or vegetables, and there are a couple of ways to ensure tasting is a fun and easy experience.
•
•
Prepare tasting before class begins by washing and cutting produce, and arranging it attractively
on a plate.
Often in Garden Club we will prepare a salad or slaw that involves multiple fruits and vegetables,
with lemon juice and/or a little bit of honey as a dressing.
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•
•
•
•
•
If you have access to an oven, try roasting squash or root vegetables for a tasting that many
students love.
Another popular tasting idea is to do a “taste test,” where students can compare several types
of winter fruit, or several varieties of apple.
Before serving tasting, talk with students about having an open mind to new flavors, or “food
adventurers” and explain that they can take a small “no thank you” bite, and choose to leave the
rest if they don’t like it. Never force a student to taste something if they don’t want to.
Ask students to use descriptive words like “interesting” or “different” instead of calling a new
taste “gross” or saying “eww.”
If possible, harvest fruits or vegetables directly from the garden. Students are even more likely
to try and enjoy fruits and vegetables they had a hand in growing themselves.
AGE-APPROPRIATE ACTIVITIES
Many of the activities which follow can be adapted to multiple age levels of participants. The general
age range will be noted for each activity, along with suggested ways to adapt to younger or older youth.
If additional staff or older student helpers are available, they can help with such tasks as recording
information, using garden or kitchen tools (especially sharp ones), and assisting young participants in
planting or harvesting tasks.
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LESSON PLANS
NOTE: The lesson sequence can vary, based on needs and interests of the group. Each Lesson begins with
“Introduction & Weather Log” and ends with “Wrap-Up & Taste”
LESSON 1: Introductions
• What is a garden? Pre-garden assessment
• Community Agreement, Rules, Garden Journal
• Weather Log and Bed Mapping
LESSON 2: The Big Picture: Why do we have a garden?
• Why have a garden?
• Spring Vegetables
• Crop Vote
LESSON 3: Planting Plan: How much space do things need to grow?
• Seed Packet Study
• Be The Plant Game
• Seed Tape Craft
LESSON 4: Seeds of Growth: Planting in the Garden
• Germination Study
• Pipe Cleaner Sprouts
• Planting in the Garden
LESSON 5: Construction Projects: Signs and Supports
• Make signs
• Planting Grids
• Trellis for Climbing Plants
LESSON 6: Life Cycle of Soil: Compost and Worms
• Soil Dissection
• Make a Worm Bin
• Feed Your Plants
LESSON 7: Pollinator Tag
• Flower Hunt
• Pollinator Demonstration
• Pollinator Tag
LESSON 8: Heat Lovers! Transplanting Warm Season Crops
• Plant Ancestry Map
• Transplanting
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Lesson 1
Mapping: What does our garden space look like?
Learner Goal: Become familiar with the garden space. Practice observation skills.
Ages: All (Younger students may need assistance with
writing in journal)
Lesson Plan
1. Introduction
2. Garden Journals & Weather Log
3. Garden Map
4. Wrap-Up & Taste
SUPPLIES NEEDED:
 Nametags or Wood Cookies
 Manila file folders (or other journal(s)
 Crayons and/or markers
 Garden Journal page*
 Temperature Log*
 Rain and temperature gauges
 Vocabulary list
 Clipboards
 Pencils
 Tape Measures and Rulers
 Garden Map*
 Action Plan*
 Directional Compass
 Tasting Samples
*Worksheets Included
Background: Garden Journaling is an important part of longterm gardening. Knowing the path of the sun, when it sets
and rises, the shadows in your garden at different times of
the year, when the first freeze is likely to come, or when it
will stop freezing at night, all are important markers for a
gardener. While much of this information can be found in
garden almanacs, catalogs or online, it is useful for
beginning gardeners to hone their observation skills and
track changes from week to week. The garden mapping will
serve as a tool for a later lesson, in which the planting space
will be plotted out. If you do not have a garden space to work with, or must remain indoors, you can
draft an imaginary garden space for students to measure.
Preparation:
• Letter Home: Consider writing a letter to send home with the parents introducing them to the
garden program, letting them know that their children will be outside and eating vegetables (see
example letter). Make sure to suggest weather-appropriate clothing for garden club days, and
ask parents to report any food or environmental allergies to you.
•
Nametags: Unless you already know all the students, plan on making reusable nametags—if you
expect to have volunteer visitors, this is especially helpful. “Wood cookies” make a great option,
a 2” or 3” slice of tree branch with two holes drilled in it for a necklace- string, plastic lacing, or
ribbon can be used. Try to find a place to hang wood cookies between weeks so as not to tangle
them.
•
Journals: Teachers can create journals such that each student is merely decorating the cover, or
students can make journals. This can be an elaborate bound journal or simply a manila file folder
with loose paper inside. Make sure each is labeled with their name. You may wish to include
journal pages for each day of garden club from Week 1, or add sheets each week the student is
there.
o Alternative: Instead of making a journal for each student, you could have a Garden Club
journal. This is especially appropriate if you may have different children each week or
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particularly sporadic attendance. Students can take turns being responsible for writing
in the journal. This way you also have something to archive at the end of class.
•
Weather Station: Set up a weather station, either in the garden or outside the classroom door if
garden will not be visited weekly. Include: thermometer, rain gauge, humidity, wind gauge or
sock, compost thermometer (could also measure soil temperature).
•
Garden Map: Make copies of a map of garden with beds that students will be planting in
labeled, so that students know which bed they are measuring.
•
Wrap Up & Taste: Prepare a fruit or vegetable for end of class tasting.
Activities
1. Introduction: (2-5 minutes, depending on number of students) Let each student share their name
and perhaps what they would like to grow in the garden (you may want to take note of their
answers!). Share a bit about the program/who you are, and an overview of what will be happening
over the course of the program.
o Wood Cookies or Name Tags: Use a permanent market to write each student’s name (on both
sides, because they twirl around), and then let them color with crayons.
2. Garden Journals & Weather Log: Distribute the individual journals so students can begin coloring
the outside while conversation continues. Go over the Weather Log together, discussing what each
category means and if time allows, why weather is important to gardening.
o Weather Log Talking points: It is important to record
the weather each day of garden club. We will record
Suggested Garden Rules:
the weather on a daily basis to gain an understanding
1. Respect
of how it affects the growth and health of plants in our
2. Ask before you pick
garden. Weather station tools such as a rain gauge,
3. Stay on the paths (not in the
thermometer, and wind vane provide a fun way for
beds)
students to observe and measure weather-related
4. Tool Safety
changes in the garden.
o Vocabulary List: Why does it say “precipitation” instead of rain? Precipitation includes snow,
hail, sleet, etc. Some weather observations may be able to be done from inside. Students may
have questions on spelling weather words—it is great to include a garden vocabulary list that
can be referred to and added to throughout the program.
o Outside: As a class, visit weather station and record weather observations. Tour the garden
together. Suggest garden rules, taste anything that is growing.
3. Garden Map: If the weather is good and you have outdoor table space, this entire activity can be
done outside. Otherwise, go over the process indoors, go outside and make measurements and
notes, and return indoors to complete Action Plan and finish Garden Map.
o Pair up students for the first part of this activity. Depending on the level of difficulty, number of
children, and time you want to take, do adequate prep, possibly giving them a pre-drawn outline
of the garden, with measurements missing. While creating an overall map to scale of your
garden space is a valuable resource, what is most important for this exercise is that students
measure and draw the planting space for which they will be responsible personally or as a
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o
o
o
group. They should note soil quality, sun/shade exposure, and what (if anything) is currently
planted in the garden.
Garden Mapping: Give tape measure to groups of 2-3 students. Measure the width, height,
depth of beds. Make notes: Is the box in good shape? Does it need soil? Are there weeds, or
mulch that will need removed? What is growing in the beds?
Action Plan: Make an Action Plan to use in a future week. Soil? Nails? Weeding?
Back inside: Go over Garden Mapping and Action Plan sheets together, making sure students
have labeled their drawings with feet or inches correctly. The Action Plan may be unnecessary or
too much to do at once.
4. Wrap Up & Taste: Make sure hands are washed, journals are put away, and review the day as a
group. What did we do? What did we taste in the garden? Had you tasted it before? Who liked it?
Who thinks we should grow more of it? This is an opportunity to taste a new vegetable. Maybe you
taste raw kale this week, and next week bring cooked kale.
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Garden Journal
Diario de jardin
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Date/Fecha:
_____________________
Name/Nombre:____________________
8
Garden
Vocabulary
Flower
Cloud
Manure
White
Seed
Cloudy
Straw
Blue
Stem
Light
Compost
Gray
Blossom
Wind
Rake
Yellow
Fruit
Southeast (SE)
Shovel
Green
Vegetable
Southwest (SW)
Soil
Brown
Veggie
Northeast (NE)
Mulch
Heavy
Germinate
Northwest (NW)
Loam
Strong
Heirloom
Sunny
Clay
Soggy
Hybrid
Clear
Humus
Saturated
Perennial
Patchy
Organic Matter
Mushy
Annual
Foggy
Transplant
Firm
Pollination
Misty
Thinning
Soft
Insect
Misting
Trellis
Crunchy
Predator
Sprinkles
Stake
Sandy
Pest
Sprinkling
Thermometer
Waterlogged
Companion
Sunset
Rain gauge
Acidic
Horticulture
Dusk
Dark
Planting
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Garden
Weather Log
Air
Temperature
Humidity Sky
Appearance
Name:__________________________
Current
Precipitation
Soil
Rain Gauge
Wind
Temperature
Date:
Time:
Notes:
Date:
Time:
Notes:
Date:
Time:
Notes:
Date:
Time:
Notes:
Date:
Time:
Notes:
Date:
Time:
Notes:
Date:
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Garden Mapping
Activity
Name:__________________________
(1) Draw the outline of your garden space below and (2) label each side with the
length and width. If it is a raised bed, measure its depth. Note in the example how
many ways there are to write measurements. (3) Write observations, notes, about
24”
the condition of the bed.
Our bed is 6 inches
deep, but only 4
inches full of soil.
32”, 32 inches, 3.5 ft, 3’6”, 3 ft 6 in
My garden plot looks like this:
24 inches
24 in.
2‘
2 feet
2 ft.
Notes about what needs done in our garden plot:
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Lesson 2
The Big Picture: Why do we have a garden?
Learner Goals: Reflect on how gardening benefits us and others. Learn what vegetables we can grow in
early spring.
Ages: All; younger children may need assistance
calculating the number of fruits and vegetables their
family needs daily.
Lesson Plan
1. Garden Journals & Weather Log
2. Why Have a Garden?
3. Eating Fruits and Vegetables
4. Spring Vegetables
5. Garden Crop Vote
6. Wrap-Up & Taste
SUPPLIES NEEDED:
 Colored puff balls or beads
 Ziploc bags
 Slips of paper
 Pencils and Crayons
 Journals
 Whiteboard and Markers
 “Spring Vegetables” Handout*
 Tasting supplies
*Worksheet Included
Background: All of our food ultimately comes from plants,
but sometimes children are unaware of this fact. Explaining the plant origins of all food can help your
students better understand why gardening is important, connecting their own hunger to the work they
do in garden club. Additionally, it is important for all gardeners to take responsibility for feeding other
people; not everyone has access to land or to gardening resources, and so it is important for those of us
who are fortunate enough to grow food to share our harvest with others.
Preparation:
•
•
•
5-a-day Bags: Have enough zip-loc baggies for each student to take one home and enough
colored craft puff balls for each student to take around 25 home. If weather allows, distribute
the puff balls around the garden to make a scavenger hunt for the “Eating Fruits and
Vegetables” activity.
Spring Vegetables and Crop Vote: Print up list of spring vegetables for each student and draw a
rough garden map on white board to facilitate the crop vote.
Tasting: Prep spring vegetables for students to snack on during crop vote.
Activities:
1.
Introduction, Journal, and Weather Log: Review the weather log and garden vocabulary list.
Explain that they are going to talk about spring vegetables today.
o Outside: Measure and record temperature, humidity, soil wetness, wind direction and
strength, compost or soil temperature, sky appearance, and current precipitation.
2. Where Our Food Comes From:
o Journaling: What are your favorite foods? In your journals, everyone should draw a picture
of their favorite foods.
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o
o
Discussion: Who drew a type of food that comes from plants? Who drew food that does
not come from plants? Are there any foods that do not come from plants ultimately? Take
examples from students and explain how every food item ultimately comes from plants
(HamburgerCowsGrass).
Why do we have a garden?
3. Eating Fruits and Vegetables: All food comes from plants, but fresh fruits and vegetables are an
especially important food source for us. How many fruits and vegetables should we eat each
day?
o Activity with colored puff balls. Have a container of colored objects (little craft puff balls or
other). Each object represents one serving of fruit of vegetable. Instruct the students to
take as many fruits and vegetables as you think you need for a whole day at your house.
o Tell the students you should have at least 5 servings for each day, for each person—and as
many different colors as possible. Let the students get more puff balls. If they would like to
take them home, they can put them in a zip-loc bag and write on a piece of paper “5 fruits
and veggie servings per day.”
o If weather allows, you can place puff balls around the garden and have students search for
their 5-a-day as a scavenger hunt. Once they have obtained enough puff balls, you can
then give them a taste of a seasonal fruit or vegetable as a reward.
4. Spring Vegetables: Spring in the Willamette Valley is cool and rainy, and not all plants can grow
well in those conditions. Some vegetables, however, like cool weather, and they grow well in
spring. Give each students a list of crops that can be planted in spring, and ask them to write in
their journal their top three choices.
5.
Garden Crop Vote: Draw the garden space on a white board; have the students vote which
vegetables they want to plant; then have them vote on which beds will have which vegetables.
6. Wrap Up & Taste: Try to provide some of the vegetables listed on the “Spring Vegetables” list
for students to sample while they work in their journals.
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Vegetables We Can
Plant in Spring!
Cabbage
Beets
Cauliflower
Broccoli
Carrots
Celery
Parsley
Chard
Turnips
Onions
Chives
Spinach
Peas
Kohlrabi
Lettuce
Radishes
Potatoes
Parsnips
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Lesson 3
Planting Plan: How much space do things need to grow?
Learning Goal: Students will learn to read the backs of seed packets and understand seed spacing
guidelines. Older students will additionally learn to plan garden beds and project harvest yields.
Ages: All, with variations for older students.
Lesson Plan
1. Garden Journals & Weather Log
2. Seed packet study
3. Be the Plant
4. Seed Tape
5. Wrap-Up & Taste
SUPPLIES NEEDED:
 Teaching Seed Packets
 1-ply unbleached toilet paper
 Small densely planted seeds
(carrot, lettuce, radish)
 Craft glue
 Rulers
 Tweezers, if available
 Journals
Background: Plants are like animals, they all start as babies,
and some get very big, some stay very small. If we plant
seeds too closely, the plants may not have enough room to
grow big and tall. If we plant them too far apart, we don’t grow as much food as we could. How do we
know how to plant seeds properly to give them enough room and to produce the most food?
Preparation:
1. Teaching Seed Packets: Select seed packets that have illustrations and clear planting
instructions (Seed Savers Exchange packets are relatively kid-friendly). Make sure that you have
a number of varieties representing the different seed spacings.
2. Tasting: Prepare spring vegetables for students to snack on after making seed tape.
Activities:
1. Introduction, Journal, and Weather Log: Review the weather log and garden vocabulary list.
Explain that they are going to talk about spring vegetables today.
o Outside: Measure and record temperature, humidity, soil wetness, wind direction and
strength, compost or soil temperature, sky appearance, and current precipitation.
2. Seed Packet Study. Distribute the educational seed packets to the class. If you have a board,
have 3 column headings: Close, Medium, Far Apart. Or, “apartment, houses, countryside,”
explaining that some plants live very close together, like people do in apartment buildings. Some
plants live next door to each other: maybe they can touch if they stretch, but they’ve got some
personal property, like a house in a neighborhood. Some plants take up lots of ground, more like
living in the countryside. Ask kids to put their seed card in the corresponding column.
Close: Garlic, Radish, Carrot, Peas, Lettuce
Medium: Cucumber, Kale, Broccoli, Corn, Tomato, Turnip
Far Apart: Cantaloupe, Winter Squash, Watermelon
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Once they become familiar with the plant distances, they are ready to play a game.
3. Game: Be the Plant. In a field, have class be the seeds—first, go over the distances. Close, or
hand distance apart—with hands up in the air like vertical stems with small leaves. Medium, or
arm’s-length apart—spread out where finger tips touch when arms are extended. Far apart,
spread out enough that arms cannot touch and people can pass between the “plants.” Assign
students roles and ask them to form garden beds. Be radishes, stand very close together. Be the
pumpkin, they need to spread out. Tomato, be at arm’s distance. Corn, arm’s distance. Be a
mixed bed with lettuce, carrots, kale, and cantaloupes.
4. Craft/Gardening: Seed Tape: Determine the amount of toilet paper and seeds distributed to
each youth dependent on your planting space, work space, and number of youth. Roll out two
pieces of 1-ply of toilet paper per youth, or if 2-ply, instruct youth to pull apart. Put a line of
craft glue, such as Elmer’s, down the center of the strip and have students place seeds into the
glue, spaced according to directions. Sometimes tweezers can make the job easier, if fingers
cannot handle them. Once seeds are on, put a thin line of glue along each edge of the toilet
paper and place an equally long piece of toilet paper on top. Set aside to dry. These strips will be
able to be planted by rolling them across the garden bed and covering with thin layer of soil.
o Older students can cut the toilet paper to length according to the bed maps that they
should have in their journals from Lesson 1. Ask them how many rows they can plant in
their bed? How many seeds go in each row? How many carrots or radishes can they
expect to harvest?
5. Wrap-Up & Taste: Try to select vegetables for tasting that represent each of the three types of
plant spacing. In spring, this might include: radishes, peas, lettuce, kale, and winter squash. If
not all vegetables are available, draw students attention to the spacing that the vegetable they
are tasting requires.
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Lesson 4
Seeds of Growth – Planting in the Garden
Learning Goal: Students will learn about the conditions that seeds need in order to germinate, and they
will practice direct-seeding spring vegetables in the garden.
Ages: All; younger students might need help gluing pipe cleaner sprouts.
Lesson Plan:
1. Garden Journals & Weather Log
2. Germination and First Growth
3. Pipe Cleaner Sprouts
4. Planting!
5. Wrap-Up & Taste
SUPPLIES NEEDED:
 Dried seed pods
 Sprouts
 Craft Puff Balls
 Pipe Cleaners
 Glue
 Seed tape from Lesson 3
 Journals
Background: A germinating seed is one of the great
miracles of the natural world. From a hard, cold,
seemingly lifeless little pebble there suddenly emerges in
spring a root, a shoot, and seed leaves that are the first
signs of life. The miracle of seed germination is one of the best ways to capture a child’s interest in
gardening, and although this lesson takes a bit of advance preparation, the pay off in generating
enthusiasm is well worth it.
Preparation:
1. Dried plants w/seed pods: In the previous year, you should have allowed some broccoli,
lettuce, spinach, cilantro, or other quick-bolting crop to go to seed. Allow the plant to dry by
hanging upside down in a shed or garage. If you did not have an opportunity to save seed from
the previous growing season, don’t forget that untended lots and fencerows are great places to
find weeds that have gone to seed. Even grasses will work for this lesson!
2. Sprouts: One week before you teach this lesson you will need to begin preparing sprouts.
Choose at least two types of sprouts that will have distinctly different looks, and if possible
choose food grade seeds that can do double duty for the tasting session. Wheat berries, mung
beans, broccoli seeds, and alfalfa seeds are great choices that are usually available at most
health food stores in a raw state. Soak the seeds for 12-24 hours, drain, and place in a mason
jar covered in plastic wrap with holes poked in it. Keep the seeds around room temperature and
make sure to shake the jar at least once a day. Spritz with water if they begin to look dry. Three
days before the lesson, start another batch of the same seeds so that they will just have begun
to germinate by class time.
3. Tasting: Sprouts can be served plain or with a light dipping vinegar. Try a seasoned rice vinegar
to add a little sweetness to the sprouts.
Activities:
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1. Introduction, Journal, and Weather Log: Review the weather log and garden vocabulary list.
Explain that they are going to talk about seeds today.
• Outside: Measure and record temperature, humidity, soil wetness, wind direction and
strength, compost or soil temperature, sky appearance, and current precipitation.
2. Germination and First Growth: Begin by reminding students that all food comes from plants
(lesson 2), and then remind them again that all plants come from seeds (lesson 3). But how do
seeds turn into plants?
• Fruits! First show students a dried plant that contains seed pods from the previous year.
Each individual plant produces hundreds of seeds to make new plants. We call the pods
that contain the seeds “fruits.” Split open the pods and show the students the seeds.
• Seeds! Seeds contain a “road map” or “blueprint” for producing a new plant, but each
seed waits until just the right time before it decides to start growing. The important
conditions for growth are moisture and warmth. A seed that tries to start growing in the
dry summer will die very quickly, and a seed that tries to start growing in the cold winter
will also die quickly. Most seeds need damp soil that has been warmed by the sun to
about 55 degrees Fahrenheit. (Consult weather log to see how warm soil is today.)
When a seed has decided to start growing we say that it has “germinated.”
• Roots! When a seed is warm and wet, the first thing it does it send out a root to build
the foundation for the plant. Roots take up water and nutrients and keep the plant
stable. Show students the first batch of germinated seeds that have roots but no leaves.
• Shoots and Leaves! Once the seed has put down a root, it sends up a shoot or stem to
find sunlight. At the end of the shoot are two small leaves that we call “seed leaves.”
These leaves look different from the adult plant because they are stored in the seed all
winter long. Show students the second batch of germinated seeds that have roots,
shoots, and leaves.
• If feasible, show students videos of plant germination. The website Plants in Motion has
a wide selection: http://plantsinmotion.bio.indiana.edu/plantmotion/starthere.html
3. Pipe Cleaner Sprouts:
• Pass out colored craft puff balls and pipe cleaners of different colors. This is the “seed”
that students need to turn into a sprout. Ask them to use a pipe cleaner to show how a
root emerges from the seed. Then ask them to use another color of pipe clear to
represent the stem. Can they attach two seed leaves to the stem? If students have
trouble twisting the pipe cleaners to attach them, offer them craft glue.
4. Planting: Take students out to the garden and demonstrate how to plant seed tape, and then
send them in teams to the beds they have designed.
• Remind students that every seed has a certain spacing and depth that it prefers. Hand
out seed packets, if necessary, to find appropriate depths.
• Demonstrate how to make a shallow trough along a bed, roll out seed tape, and cover
with soil again.
• Water beds if necessary—not likely in an Oregon spring!
• If time allows, you can also introduce students to traditional direct seeding by giving
them peas to plant. Remind them again that seeds like to be planted at a certain depth
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and spacing. The rule of thumb for seed depth is that a seed likes to be planted three
times as deep as the width of the seed.
5. Wrap-Up & Taste: After planting outside, give students the opportunity to taste the different
sprouts that you have brought in. Mung beans and broccoli sprouts are classic choices. If time
allows, have students notate in their journals what kids of seeds they planted in their beds.
Invite them to draw pictures of what they imagine their seeds will look like in one week, in one
month, in three months!
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Lesson 5
Construction Projects: Signs & Supports
Learning Goal: Students will learn why some plants need special supports, and they will have a chance
to develop their expressive side by making garden art.
Ages: All
Lesson Plan:
1. Garden Journals & Weather Log
2. Support systems
3. Signs for our garden
4. Wrap-Up & Taste
Background: Gardens are more than just dirt and plants—
they are spaces that we build in so that they can be more
productive and more beautiful. All plants need to be
labeled for everyone to know what is growing; some plants
require special supports or trellises to help them produce
more food; and all gardens need a little bit of art to keep
them cheerful year round.
Preparation:
SUPPLIES NEEDED:
 Metal Fencing Stakes
 Twine
 Scissors
 Pea seeds
 Bean seeds
 Dowel Rods
 Paint sticks
 Stones
 Brushes
 Paints
 Tarp
 Cups and plates
 Clean up supplies
 Tasting supplies
1. Set up painting station: Spread out tarp over table,
prepare multiple paint trays, cups for brushes, paper towels for cleanup, etc. Also collect paint
sticks and stones for painting.
2. Tasting: Bring green beans or snap peas for tasting at the end of garden club.
Activities:
1. Introduction, Journal, and Weather Log: Review the weather log and garden vocabulary list.
Explain that they are going to talk about plant supports today.
a. Outside: Measure and record temperature, humidity, soil wetness, wind direction and
strength, compost or soil temperature, sky appearance, and current precipitation.
2. Support Systems: All plants need sunlight, and they have different strategies for getting it.
Break the students into groups and ask them how they would grow as plants to get sunlight in
that location. Place one group under a tree; place another group on the North side of a shed,
wall, or other solid obstruction; and place another group next to a mesh or chain-link fence. Let
each group come up with a different strategy for finding sunlight in their location, then bring all
the students together and compare their answer to real strategies used by plants: strawberries
and melons sprawl along the ground looking for sun; corn shoots up tall and straight to find sun
above other obstacles; and peas and beans climb up other plants to find the sun.
a. Making pea trellises and bean poles.
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i. Pea trellises can be made in a number of ways, but one easy way uses twine and
metal fence posts with hooks on the side. Simply place two fence posts up to 3
feet apart, tie the twine off at the bottom of one post, and then zig-zag the
twine between the posts, securing on hooks with every pass around a post until
you have reached the top. Peas can be planted along the line made by the
twine.
ii. Bean poles are even easier! Take three thick, 5 foot dowel rods and drive them
at an angle into the ground to make a small tipi. Wrap twine around the central
meeting point of all the rods to secure the tipi, and then plant three beans at
the base of each pole. Early in the season, make sure to plant cold tolerant
beans like Uncle Steve’s Italian Pole Bean, Fin de Bagnol, or Kennearly Yellow
Eye.
3. Signs for Our Garden: All of our plantings also need to be labeled!
a. Provide students with paint sticks (available at the hardware store), permanent markers,
and acrylic paints. Make sure to paint the sticks first and then write the names over the
dried paint later.
b. If you have medium-sized stones available, you can also make plant markers or other
decorative objects by painting the stones and placing them throughout the beds.
4. Wrap-Up & Taste:
Make sure to have students add the new trellises and tipis to the garden map they have been
making! Bring snap peas and green beans in for students to taste.
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Lesson 6
Life Cycle of Soil – Compost & Worms
Learning Goal: Students will learn about two main agents of decomposition in the soil: worms and
bacteria. They will also be able to explain why decomposition in the soil is necessary for plant growth.
Ages: All (with adaptations for younger students)
Lesson Plan:
1. Garden Journals & Weather Log
2. Compost Study
3. Worms for our garden
4. Amending the soil
5. Wrap-Up & Taste
SUPPLIES NEEDED:
 Compost
 Garden tools
 Worm bin and materials
 Red wriggler worms
 Soil amendments
Background: Students have already worked with the soil in
the previous lessons, planting seeds and learning about
moisture and warmth in the soil. Soil is also important to plants because it provides key nutrients like
carbon, nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus. Soil nutrients are broken down and made available to
plants through the process of decomposition—literally “breaking apart.”
Preparation:
1. Worm Bin: While most of the construction should be done with students, it’s a good idea to predrill holes into the sides of the bin for aeration. Make sure to ask around at your local nursery
for a source of red wiggler worms for purchase. Common earth worms are great for tilling the
soil, but they are not effective decomposers and are inappropriate in a worm bin.
2. Tasting: Bring bread and jam, or other partially “decomposed” foods for tasting.
Activities:
1. Introduction, Journal, and Weather Log: Review the weather log and garden vocabulary list.
Explain that they are going to talk about soil today.
a. Outside: Measure and record temperature, humidity, soil wetness, wind direction
and strength, compost or soil temperature, sky appearance, and current
precipitation.
2. Soil Dissection-- “What is soil?”
• Have students scoop out a trowel of garden soil onto a paper plate, and ask them a series of
questions:
o What color is the soil? Is it all one color?
o What does it smell like?
o What temperature is it?
o What texture is it?
o Are there any pieces that they can identify as something besides dirt?
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•
o What’s the largest separate piece in the scoop? The smallest particle?
Explain that soil is composed of two main things: ground up pieces of rock, and
decomposing plants. Both parts are important for plants, but it is the decomposing matter
(the “humus” or “compost” in the soil) that is the most important plant food in the soil.
Today we’re going to start making more compost for our garden.
3. Build or study a Worm Bin-- One of the important decomposers are worms.
• What is “decomposition”? Decomposition is the process of plants (and animal and insect
bodies) breaking apart into smaller, more basic pieces that can serve as the building blocks for
new plants.
• If you have a compost pile already, now’s a good time to take a shovel full of material out of
the middle and let the kids explore the rotting matter. Ask the same questions you asked
about the soil above. Are their identifiable plant parts “breaking apart” and becoming
compost?
• What causes decomposition? Bacteria and fungi do a lot of the work of decomposition, but so
do bugs—like worms! Worms eat dead plants and turn them into food for new plants.
• Building a worm bin is a good way to make more compost for our garden soil—and more food
for our plants! Here’s what you need to do:
1. Drill holes in a shallow Rubbermaid tub for aeration.
2. Shred 2-3 sheets of newsprint, toilet paper tubes, and/or egg cartons and add to bin.
This provides carbon, one of the basic nutrients for plants.
3. Add a bit of soil, leaves or compost-- just enough to lightly cover. This provides the
natural soil bacteria that will help with decomposition.
4. Add food scraps--no dairy, meat, onions or citrus. Food scraps and green plants provide
nitrogen—the other basic nutrient plants need.
5. Add a starter group of “red wiggler” worms to start the process of composting.
6. Now let the worms do their work!
• The bin needs to be placed in a cool shady area and occasionally a small amount of water
added to keep the environment cool and moist. Add food scraps daily or weekly as needed.
• Every few months the soil and worms can be harvested and added to your garden, and the bin
cleaned. The liquid that accumulates in the bottom of the bin is extremely rich fertilizer for
your plants, too.
4. Feed Your Plants!
• To complete the cycle of soil for the day, dip into your compost pile to find well rotted
compost to add to your plants.
• Use a coarse screen to sift shovelfuls of your compost pile over a bucket or wheelbarrow.
Throw the larger pieces back into the pile, and keep the finer matter for spreading over your
garden.
• Break the students into groups with buckets of compost and trowels and instruct them to
spread each bucket over a garden bed. Remember to tell them that they are providing their
plants with healthy food that will last them all summer long.
5. Wrap-Up & Taste: To continue the concept of “breaking down food,” try to organize your
tasting session around food that is partially “broken down” or composted. Bread, for example,
is a food that is partially eaten by yeast before we eat it; jam, too, is “broken down” fruit.
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Lesson 7
Pollinator Tag
Learning Goal: Students will learn about the symbiotic relationship between pollinator insects—like
bees—and flowering plants. Students will understand why pollinators are necessary for most food
crops.
Ages: All; with a mixed group, be mindful of size
differences in the tag game
Lesson Plan:
1. Garden Journals & Weather Log
2. Flower Hunt
3. Pollinator Demonstration
4. Pollinator Tag
5. Wrap-Up & Taste
SUPPLIES NEEDED:
 Model flowers
 Gold fabric strips
 Honey sticks
 Apples
Background: Fruits, nuts and most vegetables are produced by flowering plants that must be pollinated
by bees or other insects in order to produce viable seeds. Many plants, like apple trees or squash vines,
can’t produce food at all if they are not visited by pollinators. But bees today are threatened by
pesticides, urbanization, and monoculture. Teaching kids why bees are important for our food will give
them a new respect and appreciation for these indispensable bugs!
Preparation:
1. Pollinator Tag Supplies: Requires a small craft project prior to class—but worth the effort
to explain a difficult concept to the students.
a. Model Flowers: You will need a bag of multi-colored craft puff balls, a bag of pipe
cleaners of the same colors, paper plates, Velcro strips, and staples. Loop pipe
cleaners around the edge of paper plates and secure with staples to resemble
petals. In this way, make four flowers of four different colors. In the center of each
flower staple four different Velcro squares. Then staple the other Velcro piece to a
colored craft ball that matches the color of the flower. Each flower should be color
coordinated and should have four puff balls that represent pieces of pollen. On the
back of the flower, tie a bundle of pipe cleaners that will represent nectar.
b. Bee Flags: Rip gold fabric into as many long gold strips as you need to serve as
“flags” that mark who is a bee.
c. Flycatcher hats: bee flags can also be tied around the head to represent a flycatcher
bird in the pollinator game.
2. Tasting: Bring apples and honey straws to remind students of the two products that we get
from the relationship between bees and flowering plants.
Activities:
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1. Introduction, Journal, and Weather Log: Review the weather log and garden vocabulary list.
Explain that they are going to talk about bees today.
• Outside: Measure and record temperature, humidity, soil wetness, wind direction
and strength, compost or soil temperature, sky appearance, and current
precipitation.
2. Flower Hunt: Ask your students why they think bees like to visit gardens. Explain that bees
come to gardens to get nectar from the flowers—nectar that they turn into honey!
• Can you find any flowers in the garden? It’s spring time, so there should be
something in flower. Send students around the garden to count the different types
of flowers. How many different colors can they find? Different sizes? Different
numbers of petals? Who can find the most flowers? The biggest flower?
• Before you send the students out to explore, it’s important to explain to the club
that bees can be dangerous if you bother them. They don’t mind you watching
them, but don’t try to touch or swat them! Also remind them not to pick any
flowers without permission.
3. Pollinator Demonstration: Gather students back together and show them your model
“flowers.” Use the model to explain how bees not only take nectar from flowers, but how
they also pollinate.
• Give two students model flowers to hold up. Each flower has colorful petals that
catch a bee’s attention, and they have nectar to give to the bee also. But flowers
also have pollen. Explain that every piece of pollen has a “map” of how to make a
fruit and seed, and every flower wants to send its pollen to another plant and
receive pollen from another plant.
• Ask one student to be a bee. The bee comes to visit one flower and he takes a straw
of nectar, but a piece of pollen also sticks to his body. Tell the student playing the
flower to give the bee a piece of velcroed pollen. The bee then goes to visit another
flower, and the pollen from the first flower sticks inside the next.
• At the end of the bee’s visits, he is happy because he has enough nectar to make
honey, and the flowers are happy because they now have the pollen that they need
to make fruit and seeds. If pollen does not get exchanged, then the flower cannot
produce seeds.
4. Pollinator Tag: Now that the students have seen pollination, it’s time for them to play a
game to understand it better.
• Roles:
o Four students are apple flowers, holding different colored model flowers with
Velcro pollen (see Preparation for full description). Flowers are stationed
around the garden.
o Remaining students become bees, with gold socks coming out of their pockets.
They begin the game together at the “hive.”
o One calm, non-aggressive student plays the role of the “flycatcher” bird. He or
she wears a hat to signify the role.
o Adults are the referees.
• Game play:
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o
o
o
o
o
Bees buzz around and ask for a stick of nectar (colored pipe cleaner) from a
flower. The flower gives them nectar but also gives them a piece of pollen. The
bee then takes that pollen to another flower and adds it to the Velcro “flower.”
When they add pollen to a new flower, the flower gives them another nectar
stick. They do not get nectar if they take the same colored pollen back to the
same colored tree.
The flycatcher can eat bees by removing the socks from their pockets. Dead
bees have to return to the hive until the round is over.
The round is over when all the bees are dead or all of the trees are fully
pollinated.
The bee with the most nectar gets rewarded with a honey stick; the flower that
was fully pollinated first gets rewarded with an apple.
Exchange roles and play again!
5. Wrap-Up & Taste: After three rounds of play, kids return to table to draw in garden
journals: show how bees and apples help one another. While the students are drawing,
pass out apples and honey to the students who did not yet win any. If possible, have
available several kinds of apples (or other fruit) for students to sample.
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Lesson 8
Heat Lovers! Transplanting Warm Season Crops
Learning Goal: Students will learn the difference between temperate and sub-tropical plants, and they
will learn how to plant transplants.
Ages: All
Lesson Plan:
1. Garden Journals & Weather Log
2. Plant Ancestry Map
3. Transplanting
4. Wrap-Up & Taste
SUPPLIES NEEDED:
 Transplants
 Trowels
 Gloves
 Enlarged Plant Ancestry
Map
 Plant Cards
 Tasting supplies
Background: Young students sometimes have a hard time
understanding why they can’t plant tomatoes or peppers in
February, or why they can’t harvest corn in January. It’s
important to teach students that most of our food crops
originally come from different parts of the world, and
based upon their ancestry, some plants prefer weather that is hotter or similar to the weather we have in
Oregon. Tomatoes grow year round in hotter parts of the world—but they only grow for a few months in
the summer in Oregon!
Preparation:
1. Plant Ancestry Supplies: Print up the included plant ancestry map in color as well as the
plant cards. Laminate the map and cards, and attach sticky tac to the back of the cards.
Ideally you should expand the map to a larger size, but the activity can be done with the
letter-sized map provided that you remove each card after it has been discussed.
2. Tasting: This late in spring you should be able to harvest a salad from the garden.
Remember to bring a clean colander and bowls and to practice good food safety by rinsing
hands and produce.
Activities:
1. Introduction, Journal, and Weather Log: Review the weather log and garden vocabulary list.
Explain that they are going to talk about plant ancestry today.
• Outside: Measure and record temperature, humidity, soil wetness, wind direction
and strength, compost or soil temperature, sky appearance, and current
precipitation.
2. Plant Ancestry Map: Begin by asking students to look at their garden plan in their journals.
What plants in their plan have they not put in the beds yet? If you’ve been planting
seasonally, the students should mention a number of subtropical plants: tomatoes,
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eggplants, melons, peppers, corn, etc. We haven’t planted these varieties yet because it has
been too cold and rainy!
• Map: Shows students the World Map included in this lesson. If you can have the
map enlarged onto a poster board, the diverse climate regions of the world become
even more visible. Ask students to identify the United State, and Oregon in
particular. Where is the hottest part of the world? Where is the coldest? What
grows in the coldest spot? What grows in the warmest spot? Is Oregon closer to
the middle of the globe, the bottom, or to the top? What other spots on the world
have a similar climate?
• Plant cards: Most of the plants that we grow in the garden are not originally from
Oregon. They were brought here by gardeners from other parts of the world.
Depending on where they came from, they may be used to a hotter, colder, wetter,
or drier climate. Give each student one plant card and ask them to place it on the
map where they think it came from originally. Ask them why they think the plant
comes from there, and then tell them whether they’re right or wrong. Plant cards
and answers are included at the end of this lesson plan.
• The further north that a plant comes from originally, the better it will usually do in
Salem. The closer to the equator, the more restricted its growing season will be.
Some plants come from so close to the equator that we can never grow them in
Salem!
3. Transplant: Now that warm weather is approaching, we can start to plant some of those
vegetables that come from closer to the equator: Tomatoes, Melons, Peppers, and
Eggplants! Transplants are baby plants that have been started in a warm greenhouse that
mimics their natural home; these plants already have large roots and leaves, but they are
quickly getting too big for their pots.
• Remind students of proper spacing techniques, and then show them how to dig a
hole for a transplant, how to overturn the pot, and how to securely plant the
transplant and cover its roots.
• For a journaling activity, have the students measure how tall the transplants are. If
they return to garden club in the fall, they can measure how tall their plants grew
over the summer.
4. Wrap-Up & Taste: Make spring-time salad with what’s available in the garden: peas,
spinach, lettuce, radishes, etc. Even though you’re planting warm season crops now, tell the
students they’ll have to sign up for next year’s garden club to enjoy the plants!
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Plant Ancestry Cards
Tomatoes
Oranges
Spinach
Peppers
Broccoli
Radish
Watermelons
Wheat
Yams
Pac Choi
Beans
Quinoa
Bananas
Squash
Sugar
Potatoes
Kale
Tea
Corn
Apples
Rice
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Plant Ancestry Cards Key
NEW WORLD
ASIA
Peppers
Apples
Central America
North Central Asia
Tomatoes
Spinach
Central America
Central Asia
Beans
Tea
Central America
Western China
Corn
Northern China
Central America
Squash
Central America
Potatoes
Andean S. America
Quinoa
Andean S. America
Pac Choi
Rice
Southern China
Sugar
India
Oranges
Southeast Asia
Bananas
Southeast Asia
EUROPE & AFRICA
Kale
Northern Europe
Radish
Eastern Europe
Broccoli
Northern Mediterranean
Wheat
Middle East
Yams
West Africa
Watermelons
Southern Africa
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