This first resource in the series provides an introductory video, tip sheets, teacher support documents, and two lessons to help your students map out a garden spot an then write persuasively to their peers about their choice of garden theme.
Teachers will learn the proper tools, classroom management strategies, budget considerations, and botany terms to help them start a garden for their students.
The resource also includes grant opportunities and resources for New York City teachers.
Teaching Tips
Positives
The lesson plans suggest various final products students can create based on their interests.
The resource provides a comprehensive collection of information teachers can use to start their school garden, accounting for curriculum, materials, and space considerations.
Teachers anywhere in the United States can benefit from the information the resource provides.
Additional Prerequisites
The Mapping the Garden lesson plan references a Garden Planning Activity sheet that is not included.
Students should know the elements of a map and how to find points on a coordinate plane.
For the Persuasive Writing in the Garden lesson, teachers must find anchor texts to use persuasive writing examples and provide different types or themes of gardens to research.
Differentiation
Older students completing the Mapping the Garden activity can make math connections by finding the perimeter or area of map features.
Students can study irrigation systems and participate in an engineering activity to develop the best system for their school garden.
A school garden can spark a conversation about the importance of biodiversity and how climate change impacts it.
Younger students completing the Persuasive Writing in the Garden activity can do a simplified version, working from a sentence stem such as, "Our garden should__because__."
Scientist Notes
This resource pack includes a series of resources to aid in planning and budgeting for a school garden. A short video introduces the basics of school gardens, and a series of tip sheets and teacher resources provide more detail. The resource includes lessons appropriate for students in grades 2-6, and a guide to help students develop their persuasive writing is linked. The "Basics of Botany" teacher resource provides straightforward answers to basic questions and clearly defines terms. This resource features clear text and a wealth of sound information and is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
LS2: Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
MS-LS2-5 Evaluate competing design solutions for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Speaking & Listening (K-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.4.5 Add audio recordings and visual displays to presentations when appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or themes.
Writing (K-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.6.8 Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources; assess the credibility of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and providing basic bibliographic information for sources.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.4 Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.1 Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information.
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
Dimension 2: Geography
D2.Geo.1.K-2 Construct maps, graphs, and other representations of familiar places.
D2.Geo.2.K-2 Use maps, graphs, photographs, and other representations to describe places and the relationships and interactions that shape them.
D2.Geo.1.3-5 Construct maps and other graphic representations of both familiar and unfamiliar places.
Common Core Math Standards (CCSS.MATH)
Measurement & Data (K-5)
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.MD.B.3 Draw a scaled picture graph and a scaled bar graph to represent a data set with several categories. Solve one- and two-step "how many more" and "how many less" problems using information presented in scaled bar graphs. For example, draw a bar graph in which each square in the bar graph might represent 5 pets.
