Garden Club!

week 1 of 8 full of lessons and activities for children (or adults)

I created an 8-week garden club curriculum for my daughter’s daycare a few years ago. Every other week from April through September (more than 8 weeks, I know) I try to go to the daycare to tend the garden with the help of 3-5 year olds. We do a craft or activity and plant, harvest, weed or otherwise care for the plants in the small raised bed garden at the home of the daycare director. Many of the children in attendance don’t have yards at home and have already developed a very transactional relationship with food.

The first week is always the most eye-opening. It is shocking for me, as a mother of two outdoor-loving worm-kissing toddlers, to see that most kids are afraid of soil—afraid of worms. Each week, I see these children crack open before my eyes, growing more comfortable and more excited about the natural world.

I was recently in a car accident (we’re all fine) and don’t have a car on days when I’m not working, so we’ve been homebound. It doesn’t bother me as I have enough to do around the house to keep me busy for weeks, but I regret missing my Fridays in the daycare garden.

You’ll benefit since it has sparked me to share this garden curriculum over the next months. I hope you use it to do something similar, share with parents of little ones you know, or do these activities yourself!

Garden Club Structure

This section is most helpful if you plan to create something like this for your children. Our children go to daycare three days a week, so we do this on an off day for us, Friday. Most of the other kids still attend, so there’s usually 6-8 participants (which honestly is perfect since they’re all around 4 years old). I presented this idea to daycare and gave a loose outline of activities and topics. She already had some raised beds and provided soil to top them off, and I’ve provided all of the materials I need for activities and all of the plants and seeds. One of her staff members is present the whole time, which tends to be 30 minutes.

I’ve also hosted this at my house - inviting the community to come for a 2 hour window. The first hour included an activity and lesson, sometimes a book. and the second hour was free play. We have a mud kitchen, tunnel, slide, and other games right in the garden as well as a large yard and playset in the back. I’ve backed down from this type of garden club this season because it’s a ton of work and attendance was really fickle. I don’t mind the work but it was impossible to know how many kids would show up. I’d have to charge more than I’m comfortable with to make it feasible - it’s not about money, it’s about exposing children to the garden.

I have a friend who does this with her homeschool co-op. I’m not knowledgable about how they work, but if you’re part of one I’m sure you can offer it!

Class Outline - A Template

Daycare is pretty laid back, and I’ve found that’s the best approach when working with 3-6 year olds.

Class starts with kids sitting down outside. I introduce the topic and see if anyone knows what I’m talking about. Most garden words tend to be multi-syllable and I shied away from them at first. These kids have proven they’re more than capable of learning about ecosystems, habitats, biodiversity and pollination, even if they have trouble pronouncing them.

Then I do a mindful movement activity. I’m not good at songs, but this would be a great opportunity for a song. Here’s a mindful movement exercise for week 1, start with everyone standing:

Dig your feet into the earth, spread your toes.

Like roots for plants, your feet and toe keep you strong and balanced.

Stand up tall, notice the length of your legs.

Like stems on plants, your legs help you grow tall.

Stretch your arms out to your sides, feel the sun on your skin.

Like leaves on plants, soak up the sun to nourish.

Turn your head to the sky, marvel in the sight.

Like a flower on a plant, you bloom.

Now, scatter, scatter, scatter.

Like a seed, dispersing in the wind.

Next, I either take kids to the garden to plant or harvest - depending on the season - or we do our activity. Sometimes I let the kids decide this order, sometimes it’s determined by the activity (cyanotype sun prints need to sit for a few minutes, so I distract the kids in the garden and then we finish our prints).

We finish up with a quick reflection. What did we do? What did we learn? Did we find anything in the garden? I try to do a lot of repetition of words and concepts.

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Week 1 - Parts of the Plant

here’s a link to a pdf for this week’s garden club activities!

Learning Objectives:

• Parts of a Plant: Students will learn the names & uses of different parts of the plants.

• Phases of Growth: Students will learn how to plant seeds and will learn how plants grow.

• Fine Motor Skills: Students will practice fine motor skills through planting and coloring.

These are the parts that we focus on for this lesson (obviously there are a ton more), and some toddler-friendly descriptions:

I usually bring props by way of plants in all forms to “quiz” the kids and provide a visual. What are some seeds that we eat? What are some roots that we eat? What are some leaves that we eat? My favorite is when they learn that broccoli and cauliflower are flowers!

Be sure to check out the full lesson linked above - it’s a free pdf that you can download and has detailed instructions for each activity, as well as discussion points to help you guide conversation!

Let me know if you try any of these!