Wow!! The garden looks so lush!! The mustard greens are beautiful and the tops of radishes are peeking through the soil! I see carrots getting bigger, cabbages forming, broccoli too, and those bean seeds must have been magical, Jack will be climbing them soon! With that being said, let’s make sure our bounty does not go to waste. So what can you do with the veggies since we can’t eat them in the garden?
- Send them home with your kiddos – include a recipe or two, or ideas on how to cook or eat them
- Take to the cafeteria so the kiddos can have them in their lunch
- Help the Becker Green Classroom and donate your produce to the Saturday morning harvest stand -items sell at the harvest stand on Saturday mornings.
- We have a total of 5 weeks left before the Winter break – that’s the halfway point, how is that possible! Here are a few class ideas to keep you going. -(normally we would be in the kitchen tasting all the wonderful veggies that are growing but since we can’t here are some other things you can do). Remember, you can make your lessons as laid back or vigorous as you like. It doesn’t matter what the activity or lesson is, the kiddos just love being in the garden! Have fun and happy growing!
- Leaf Science
- More Leaf Ideas
- Talk about the photosynthesis and make Chlorophyll Paintings
- Use air dry clay to make Clay impression pendants and/or Clay leaf bowls (these will take two class periods so the clay can dry before painting)
- Leaf Printing
- Autumn Leaf Painting
- Talk about how water travels up the leaves – do this celery experiment (one ahead of time too – like they do in the cooking shows) it will take longer than one class time to see results), and have the kiddos journal about it, maybe write a story of the the water droplet that travels from the roots to stems and finally to the leaves)
- Thanksgiving and Native American Heritage Month
- Show how the whole corn cob can be used and make Corn husk dolls
- Write words of gratitude in your journal or on loose paper and read them to the plants in the garden.
- Write poems of gratitude
- Make a Thankful Thanksgiving Tree
- Grind acorns or corn using a mortar and pestle
- Make this game using lima beans and craft sticks Native American Stick Game
- Make music shakers from fallen sticks Native American Inspired shakers
- Measurement in the Garden
- Have the kiddos measure the perimeter of your garden plot, then have them draw the plants inside, for older kids you could include the area. There are measuring tapes in the classroom but they are not super long. Our class had to do some adding = more math!)
- Measure various things in the garden using the outdoor scavenger hunt (see attachments)
- Find the age of the trees in the garden using measurement – this looks cool. You could have the kiddos draw the trees in their journal or make a map of the trees in the garden and measure them all.
- Other Fun Things to close out the calendar year
- Make a bird seed ornament
- Get ready for Spring and make seed paper for spring flowers and hand out as gifts
- Help the birds as the weather turns cold and make a bird feeder with sunbutter (you can find some in the green classroom) – you can also do these with pinecones
- Talk about the Winter Solstice and make these Winter Solstice Lanterns
- Stick and string ornaments
- Orange pomanders
- Snowflake Ornament made with sticks
If you ever have any questions or need help with a lesson, feel free to reach out.