Forums

Spring is coming and we are all looking for ways to get students outside! By creating a fairy garden on your playground you can open up all sorts of educational paths. Science- encourages planting new plants for the environment and teachs children about the growing process. For a fairy garden you need plants that won’t spread too much so you can explore the aspects of different plants Students can build their own fairy homes or buildings, bridges, sheds, schools etc which means they will be able to be creative and use engineering skills erect buildings. Students can use imagination for play and creating something like this at school may encourage them to build their own at home. It also encourages outdoor activities like gardening! Here are some links with ideas to create your schools fairy garden! http://www.escapadedirect.com/fairygarden.html http://www.organicauthority.com/kids/a-fairy-garden-for-kids.html http://pinkandgreenmama.blogspot.com/2011/05/childrens-backyard-fairy-garden.html

Hi Whitney,

My own ventures into gardening with students was born from student complaints about school lunches. I started with a single tomato plant, and ended up with baskets full of fresh produce.

What I didn't anticipate was all the additional teaching opportunities that would arise from our classroom garden (which was housed in my storage closet, by the way, since we were an urban school and had no outdoor space). Hydroponics was the answer for me.

I did a little digging and came up with some fabulous elementary level gardening resources in the NSTA Learning Center. This is by no means the majority of what is available, especially if you teach at the middle or high school levels.

One other gardening idea that I didn't see mentioned in the articles was container gardening. We used a single container to create a 'recipe' - we had pizza gardens, salsa gardens, and so on.

I would love to hear from others. How have you incorporated plants or gardens in your classroom? What ideas do you have for making it more meaningful to your students?

Happy gardening!
Kendra

Elementary Gardening Collection (6 items)

Podcast: Designing, Creating, and Teaching in Schoolyard Gardens

- Podcast

The Early Years: An Invertebrate Garden

- Journal Article

Creating a Schoolyard Mini-Garden

- Journal Article

View All 6 Items

Just have to say that I love your idea of different gardens for different dishes! I think that some kids would shy away from eating a plain veggie even if they grew it themselves, but showing how the combination of the things they grow can turn into a healthy version of one of their favorite foods is terrific and a great way to lead into so many science areas. - thanks!

I taught in an urban area where students had never experienced gardening themselves. We made a small flower garden in a corner of the school grounds. The experience of preparing the soil, digging in dirt, planting the seeds, watering the seeds grow to plants, and watching the plants grow and bloom was fascinating to my students since they had never experienced that (they were sixth graders who are a hard age to excite about learning!). Studying the parts of plants, photosynthesis, the water cycle, etc. took on personal meaning to them, rather than just reading about it in a book and looking at pictures!! Planting gardens in any area that the teacher can achieve is one of the best science learning tools I can think of!! Keep up the good work!!

These are all fun gardening projects! I'm considering to do a butterfly garden myself in order to incorporate it into my lesson plan of the life cycle of a butterfly. This butterfly garden is very similar because butterflies are attracted to certain plants like the fairies. Your links are great! And I love the Grow your own Lunch garden idea. That way, kids can learn about photosynthesis and how plants are living too since they need water and food!

I can't wait to hear all about your fairy garden lesson! It's a perfect idea to get student's involved and enjoy while they are learning.

I can't wait to hear all about your fairy garden lesson! It's a perfect idea to get student's involved and enjoy while they are learning.

I love the fairy garden idea. Please post pictures when it is all done! I will save that one for when I have a little more time and energy :)

My Chinese kids are complete urbanites that believe that food comes from the shop. In Shanghai, the majority of students live in apartments and the only green things are trees that line the roads. We grew some miniature kits that are sold in toy stores here. The soil comes in a Soda can that you place in a saucer, sprinkle seeds on top and water. There is a hole in the bottom so water can drain through a cloth. Each student was responsible for a plant. We grew tomato, basil, lavender, straw berries, mint and a few other plants. These became a major theme throughout the year. At the end, we ate mini pizzas made from the plants, made a clothes fragrancer from the lavender and other herbs and dissected a few leaves for the microscopes. So much can be gained from growing even the most simple things. If you don't have the time or energy, get the kids to do the legwork.

I am currently working on a project outline for my course (I am studying to become a teacher) and am loving all all of the ideas! I also plan on using the class garden as a way to discuss and plant native species, pollinators, nutrition and ecosystems. I am thrilled with this hands-on, student centered project and can't wait to use it in a classroom.

Katrina, There are many great resources on classroom gardens. The list here is not comprehensive but can get you started http://www.communitygarden.org/rebeltomato/fruits/garden-classroom.php One of my favorite resources (not in the above list) is Kids Gardening http://www.kidsgardening.org/ You can join their listserve for periodic updates. There is an opportunity to apply for a grant to get you started. Pam

Hey!
I'm pretty amazed that I found such a large base of Fairy Garden supporters!

I think it's a great idea to create fairy gardens on the campus.
Maybe a workgroup to this topic would work aswell!
The participants get to know the topic and could talk about it with the other students.
Fairy in a Garden

Jeff, Thank you for sharing the experience of students in your classes in Shanghai. It was so interesting to hear about how you managed to do so much with simple kits. Kudos to you!! In the US Midwest we take some things for granted and I think growing things is a garden is one of them.

Hi Everyone, I enjoyed reading your posts and was so impressed by the simple yet thoughtful and insightful ways you have made gardening so interesting. As I read more about the Fairy Gardens I began to wonder if the boys in my class would be into it...then I though "What about a Superheroes garden?". That lead me to think about favorite storybooks and using that idea to create a garden, or even taking a favorite class poem and illustrating what it might look like in 3-D then designing & building the pieces/mini structures for it to place in the garden. Then I read your posts about the recipe garden and felt even more excited...the possibilities seem endless now. My class has a garden bed which we are currently using for our Trash Garden (inquiry science project for our 3R's/Waste unit) to learn about decomposition & materials & waste. In the Spring we will use the garden to plant vegetables and I'm very thrilled to think of tying in art/design/engineering/reading. Thanks again for your wonderful ideas. Saba

Ok, all of your suggestions and ideas are great. My wheels are turning for my own ideas now. I've never heard of fairy gardens and recipe gardens. One post shared how they used their gardens plant leaves to observe plant cells under the microscope. There's so much to be done with a garden alone. I checked out youtube recently to learn to make a wicking box. It's a self-watering system that houses a reservoir of water below the layers of dirt. I used recycled material. The only thing I purchased was duct tape. I'm quite thrilled. Youtube also had a herb container made out of a 5 gallon bucket. That's my next project. Herbs are great for, as someone mentioned in an earlier post, cooking and frangrance sachets. Thanks for sharing everyone!

Teaching Kindergarten you need to get and keep students motivated. Looking over this fairy garden it can easily be adjusted to what ever space you can find around your school. Right now it is just turning into spring. Hopefully the weather will get better so my class could go outside and try something like this. Thanks for the information.

We are in the middle of plants in Kindergarten, plus this upcoming week is Easter. I was debating to use plastic vs real eggs with my students, but the idea that the students could see how plants can be used for egg decorating is leaning me toward using real eggs now. Thanks for the website.