Don’t put away your gardening tools yet! Fall is one of the best seasons for accomplishing many tasks, and right now is the best time to prepare for next spring.
Tag: gardening with kids
Creating a Sensory Garden
Create a garden where children can interact with plants and stimulate all five senses. Here are ideas for choosing plants with interesting textures, nose-tickling aromas, tasty leaves/flowers, eye-catching displays, or they create curious sounds.
What to Plant When
I recently came across this useful graphic. I particularly like the “planting, care, and harvesting” section, although I know the months section will not be accurate for every climate and every country’s growing season (I can vouch that it’s pretty accurate for the east coast and the midwest of the US tho!). More plants that…
Kid-Friendly Tomatillo Salsa (salsa verde)
My tomatillos are ripening, and it’s almost time to make some garden-fresh tomatillo salsa!! Salsa made from tomatillos is usually called salsa verde, or green salsa, and is a staple of Mexican cooking. Having a husband who is a Mexican chef, I’ll send you to his blog for an AMAZING salsa verde recipe made for…
Tomatillos! What are they and how do I grow them?
My tomatillo plants are just BARELY starting to grow fruit, and I’m already getting excited for the salsa I will be making. This week I will simply introduce tomatillos, discuss growing them, as well as connect tomatillos to potential pollination lessons. Next week I’ll have recipes!
Tips to Make Gardening Fun for Kids
Create a class of students who all love to garden! Here are some tips: Younger students have smaller attention spans; try not to overwhelm them with too large of garden plots, or plants that need extensive maintenance, and expect to spend some of your own time with maintenance tasks that are too difficult for them…
All that fresh basil!
Now that my basil plant has taken off, it’s getting quite huge and is about to go into flower. To keep basil tasting it’s best, it must be harvested often. You want to prevent it from going into flower, since it sends all of its sugars (energy) into the flowers in order to produce seeds….
Create a Snail Farm
Snails may be pests in the garden, but they are quite fascinating creatures. Create a little home for some snails in your classroom, allowing your students to watch and observe the snails in action for a couple days. Start off with a water or soda bottle. Rinse and dry it out and then put the…
Why does a tomato have so many seeds?
This activity would be a great to do towards the end of a seed unit, once students have already learned about what a seed needs to grow and also seed dispersal. I love the connections made and the discussions that often happen here, even with very young students. Start out by asking students to predict…
Garden at School 