Garden Lessons: Welcome to the Garden! (Grades 1-3)

Grades: 1-3

Lesson Objective(s): Get students used to the garden as a space for learning and help them understand the boundaries and rules we have in the garden.

Supplies Needed

• Garden Rule Cards (with pictures & description beneath):

  • Harmonica music card: “When we hear the harmonica, we put our hands together, put our eyes on the teacher, and say “Hands like glue, eyes on you”

  • Ear card: “We listen to our garden teacher”

  • Check boxes card: “We follow directions in the garden”

  • Garden Shovel card: “We use tools for gardening- not as toys”

  • Raise hand card: “When we ask or answer questions, we raise our hands”

  • Grapes & flowers card: “We always before we pick something in the garden”

  • Bees & worms & flowers & people card: “ We respect the plants, animals, and people in our garden”

• 1 Poster board with drawing of a garden (labelled), a big bubble around the garden, and the “outside garden” labeled outside of the bubble

• post-it notes & 1 Sharpie/Marker

• Harmonica

Introduction (5 mins):

• Welcome everyone to garden: introduce self, ask who’s been to the garden before

• go around circle: say names

• I bet you have rules in your classroom, don’t you? What kind of rules do you have?

  • Take a few hands

• Just like how you have rules in your classroom, we have rules in our garden to keep us safe & help our garden grow!

Activity (20 mins)

• Explain instructions: Today we’re going to play a game where we get to play pretend. Who likes to play pretend?

• We’ll use these cards (show cards). Each card has a rule that we follow in the garden. In a moment, we’re going to get into groups, and you and your group will think of a way we can follow this rule, and a silly way we wouldn’t follow this rule

• Do an example with whole class:

  • Take harmonica card & read it. Ask: who knows what this is (take a hand or two)

    • This harmonica isn’t for making music. Sometimes, it’s hard to use my voice to get everyone’s attention all at once

    • Practice: When hear harmonica, class says “Hands like glue, eyes on you!”. Clasps hands together, put eyes on speaker

    • Practice the right way, and the wrong way

• Group Up & Play Pretend: Pass out cards, one per student. students find those with matching cards

• Have 2-5 minutes to come up with: one way how to NOT follow the rule, and one way how TO follow the rule

• After each group is done, each group shows rest of class one way they can show they’re following that rule, one silly way the rule wouldn’t be followed

• (If time) As go through groups, ask rest of class: does that belong in garden class, or outside garden class. Write or draw on post-it note, put on big poster board.

Transition: Now that we’ve seen such good examples of how we act in the garden, let’s see if we can do it for real!

Garden Activity: Transplanting Broccoli Plants

• Show example first

• Everyone gets one broccoli plant to transplant

Wrap up:

• Gather in group

• Ask for examples of how they followed the rules while gardening

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