Tips to Prepare & Grow A Word Garden

Do you enjoy words? Have you ever had white magnet words on your refrigerator? Did people leave funny messages, tender notes or clever poems? Was it fun interacting with the words and watching how others responded to your messages? What if you could create this same experience with words for children in your Outdoor Classroom? 

Word Gardens are popping up everywhere. They can be as extravagant as the one in The Saint Michales College Teaching Gardens in Vermont,  or as simple as the one I’m creating at my Outdoor Classrooms Learning Lab in Massachusetts. (watch video) You get to be the creative genius behind your own Word Garden regardless of having a “green thumb” or not. 

My goal this past week was to pull together the elements for a Word Garden. It was fun and easy. Watch the video HERE. 

Materials Needed, but not limited to:

• Rocks (Medium and Small Size) from my backyard
• White Acrylic Paint (or your color preferences) 
• Paint Brushes & Water
• List of Words
• Rock Theme Books

I have to admit initially I was a little intimidated as to what words to write on each rock. Once I got rid of my “should” questions: Should I follow a theme of words? Should I create sentences? Should I paint the entire rock? I realized there are no wrong answers and gladly let go to enjoy the process of painting on rocks. It turned out to be a fantastically therapeutic experience. 

What words would you add to your Word Garden? What are your children’s favorite words? The key ingredient in creating a Word Garden is to be inspired by a list of words. Here are a few that I included:

• Butterfly
• Warm
• And
• Fuzzy
• We
• Light
• Shine
• Sun
• Thanks
• Cold
•  Us
• Birthday
• My
• It’s
• !

🙂 

Victoria

P.S. Want to learn more? Check out the Let’s Grow Literacy Master Class HERE.