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Welcome
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0-1: A Welcome Note from Victoria 30 minLecture1.1
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0-2: Good Things to Know 30 minLecture1.2
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0-3: Why Literacy Outdoors? 30 minLecture1.3
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0-4: Ideas to Kick Start Your Literacy Garden 30 minLecture1.4
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0-5: Supply List for Reading, Writing, Listening, and Talking Outdoors 30 minLecture1.5
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Module 1: Gardens that Feed
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1-1: Welcome to The Gardens that Feed 30 minLecture2.1
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1-2: Gather Seeds of Inspiration 30 minLecture2.2
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1-3: Plant Literacy Ideas 30 minLecture2.3
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1-4: Grow Literacy Activities 30 minLecture2.4
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1-5: Harvest Curriculum-on-the-Go Kits 30 minLecture2.5
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Module 2: Gardens as Outdoor Learning Stations that Inspire Themes
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2-1: Welcome to Gardens as Outdoor Learning Stations that Inspire Themes 30 minLecture3.1
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2-2: Gather Seeds of Inspiration 30 minLecture3.2
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2-3: Plant Literacy Ideas 30 minLecture3.3
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2-4: Grow Literacy Activities 30 minLecture3.4
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2-5: Harvest Literacy Curriculum Kits 30 minLecture3.5
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LIVE Workshop #1Lecture3.6
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Module 3: Gardens that Attract Wildlife
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3-1: Welcome The Gardens that Attract Wildlife 30 minLecture4.1
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3-2: Gather Seeds of Inspiration 30 minLecture4.2
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3-3: Plant Literacy Ideas 30 minLecture4.3
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3-4: Grow Literacy Activities 30 minLecture4.4
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3-5: Harvest Literacy Curriculum Kits 30 minLecture4.5
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Module 4: Gardens for Beauty and Art
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4-1: Welcome to The Gardens for Beauty and Art 30 minLecture5.1
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4-2: Gather Seeds of Inspiration 30 minLecture5.2
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4-3: Plant Ideas 30 minLecture5.3
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4-4: Grow Activities 30 minLecture5.4
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4-5: Harvest Curriculum Kits 30 minLecture5.5
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LIVE Workshop #2Lecture5.6
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74 Comments
Sense of wonder in the living things and the use of hypothesis and experiments for process learning.
I loved the story. My childcare kids are under 3/4 so I would read the story but would probably stop quite often to talk about what was being read and let them ask questions about what they heard and the pictures in the book.
Lovely!
The Book I would Choose: A School In A Garden by Sara Flannery
A few questions for book discussion:
Who inspired the planting of a garden at the school and why?
What are some of the benefits of a garden to the school that Ms. Waters shared with the Principal, Mr. Smith?
How was the garden used as a Science class?
The author says that the garden changes each season. Can you name at least one food grown in the Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall?
Terrific!
The following are two books I would add:
Olivia Pants a Garden by Emily Sollinger and A School In a Garden by Sara Flannery
Great resources!
To the list I would add the “Planting a Rainbow” by: Lois Ehlert , “Compost Stew” by: Mary McKenna Siddals and “Eating the Alphabet” by: Lois Ehlert. These are my favorite books to read to my children when we talk about gardening.
All great books!
I think that this is a great book! But it may be quite long and before this I would have to explain a few things. Like the needs of plants, plants parts, and who the person is within the book as they probably won’t know. explaining vocabulary an also be useful and letting them ask questions as the story goes on. I wold definetly either paraphrase or do short sections at a time to focus on specific things as it goes along.
For example, when it comes to introduction of the peas, maybe letting them explore different types, introduce the word variety and the parts of peas, they can even use children magnifying glasses to explore the seed itself. Then afterwards you can focus on compost what it is etc. Reading a few pages at a time and implementing things that can explain and can get further in depth to those pages themselves. You can even provide other books that can go with this book that they can explore as it goes on.
Yes…I love it when you use books as resources and in out of the box ways. Awesome
I think Gregory the terrible eater is a great book to interlock with First peas to the table. I read this book after introducing the plant and farm units to my kids. It’s important to consider because we are able to teach them cycles and how everything connects. With an edible garden we give children the understanding of what happens next. what is a fruit or a vegetable? How or why are they healthy? Why is it important to be healthy? what is a nutritious or healthy meal? What are other things that we can grow that are healthy? We can also introduce the idea that we may not like something at first but if we try it we might like it? Allowing the idea that something that grows is able to be brought to the table and used for our own health is another opportunity to learn. I know that we had made skewers using what we had after we read the book as an activity. It allowed them to conceptualize that this is not something we just speak about but work hard to make. It also develops a sense of accomplishment. I think that through this all we can use the same questions with other plants. What does this plant need vs. what does this plant need. How do we take care of this plant? How do we gather these different plants? What can we make? I think we can build connections between each literacy book we read. Sometimes it may be a stretch but other times it works great!
This is awesome!!
Can you tell me how many variety of pea seeds are in the story?
When Maya planted her first 8 pea seeds why did they not grow?
Can you tell me what they looked like under the soil when Maya looked at them?
What did Maya do different with her second 8 pea seeds that she planted?
What can be added to the garden soil to make it more rich in nutrients?
Maya kept all the pea seeds that the teacher gave her. Would you keep all the same pea seeds or trade them away to other students?
What happened when Maya watered her plants every day?
Do you think plants need to be watered everyday? or just when they are dry?
Would you help your friend if something happened to her plants? What would you do?
Great questions.
That is a great list of books! You can also add The Ugly Vegetables by Grace Lin. This story relays a glimpse into the Chinese culture and its connection to gardening. It also depicts the struggle of feeling cultural differences how a neighborhood unites through by sharing their harvest adn taking pride in their culture.
The peas were sweet victory peas. Shakayla seemed to be carrying books a variety of books that she will be using as reference and a source of learning about the best way to start and maintain a garden and grow vegetables, specifically peas. The variety of these books were probably what helped her succeed in growing viable pea plants. Shakayla used a wealth of info and planted a variety of seeds as opposed to using one particular technique and one type of seed. Although Jefferson had the most luck soaking the seeds, you would have to take into account that along with the times changing so does the climate, quality of soil, quality of seed starters etc.
Great reflections!! Very insightful.
I have several of the books on your list that I read to the children. The Eating the Rainbow is superb for planting seeds in a cut off milk jug. I also like to bring in the seed packets so the kids may see what the seeds look like before putting them in dirt.
Other books I would add to the list are:
Grandpa’s Garden Lunch by Judith Caseley
Pancakes, Pancakes by eric carle
Ready, Set, Grow by Nancy Buss
How Does Your Garden Grow? by Pat Patterson
The Runaway Garden by Jeffery L. Schatzer
I think the book, First Peas to the Table, would be very good to use with the kids. They could relate to wanting to win a contest and keeping secrets, but they also do truly come through when another child is hurting in some way and want to help. Kids would be excited about planting something that tasted like candy and sort of looks like a small piece of candy. I love taking books and making links with them for daily activities: (the children would be actively writing and drawing
in these activities)
Reading–pea life cycle book or poster
On chart paper, write directions for planting pea seeds in front of the children.
Write labels on paper cups–child’s name, pea name
Use green pompoms as peas and sort them onto numbered paper plates or use real
peas.
Writing–glue dried peas to large letters spelling child’s name and of course. peas.
nature journal–“write”/draw pictures for planting pea seeds
Write names on seed cups
Talking–Compare letters in names
talk with a buddy about pea seed growth
Share pictures of Jefferson’s garden and talk about it
Eat peas in different forms–raw, cooked, split pea soup. Share with one another
how you liked them.
Listening–Listen and observe pollinators on pea flowers.
Crunching peas underfoot or in mouths.
Fantastic reflections. What a wonderful list of books. I will add them. Great reflections with so many good ideas. Keep up the fantastic work.
About the story Shakayla has 10 differents types of peas.She knew about to plant and grow.so much, but she wanted to keep this in secret. Shakayla carried the books home, because she wanted to learn more about nature and to know all about to plant and grow products.All about miss Garcias the teacher talked with them, about to plant and grow products was great.Maya and Jefferson got additional ideas and skills for planting and growing.As Jefferson as Shakayla not wanted anyone could know that they know to plant peas.Shakayla knew that she must move the plants to a real garden since that they grow.
I love this story is quite long story but is good kids can learn how fruits or vegetables grow and they learn the parts of the plants.
Yea! So glad you loved it!
1. A English Garden Pea
2. The first group of seeds that Maya planted fail because she put too many in each pot with water in them and she didn’t put them underground where they plant them.
3. The books that Shakayla was carrying home are the garden plants from school at the recycling resource room. I think she was reading them because she wants to learn more about how to grow peas in the garden in the teacher’s classroom.
4. I think that Skakayla may have also read about that idea. She might have found the information on a notebook that someone wrote it down called The Pea’s Life Cycle.
5. The factors I think might have helped Shakayla to win the contest is by Maya helping her to fix Shakayla’s garden to make it all nice and neat to win the contest. I think beyond the story in the book to come up with additional answers are step by steps on how to do a garden on what we can make for the kids to eat something healthy.
Class List:
– Book on Instructions of how to build the plant Dirt for the new plant to make.
– A Shovel to did the dirt out of the ground.
– Tiny garden seeds in put in it first with water in it.
– Helpers to work together as a group to pat the dirt down.
I can adapt these questions to work for your age group is by doings one of them for one step at a time for just one child.
This is fantastic! Your details are terrific! Great thinking and adapting to your age group. Keep up the great work.
I work with 3-5 year olds, so I second what Psawyer said about the being too long for children’s attention span and needing to adapt it. But I’m not used to adapting something like this. I would find a book with less words and pictures that better illustrate what’s happening in the story.
Great. I am thrilled that you are finding ways to adapt to your age group.
With my age group I would do a lesson first on asking them what there favorite type of plant is. Then I would introduce the pea plant and I would ask at circle time questions about this type of plant. I would ask questions like what color is the pea vegetable, is it big or small, and do you or do you not like peas. I would also incorporate a taste test to see what students liked the taste of it and who didn’t. I would also show them how a pea grows and how it comes from a pea pod and ask how many peas are inside the pod. I would do all of these activities after reading this book to them.
Beautiful! I love how innovative you are and can feel the ideas flowing out of you. Great job!
Utilized Red leaf and yellow leaf book and had the children in my class collect leaves and separating by color.
Such a great book! Great activity. So simple, but so much learning and fun. What extension activities could you do?
For the older kids with a more developed sense of values, it would probably benefit them to think about and express some of the values, virtues, and themes demonstrated by this story: the concept of being a good sport in friendly competition, helping another person despite having no clear gain for the helper, and being proud of your work even if it’s not the “best” in something.
I absolutely love this. A great reflection for the older kids. Using children’s book for any age offers boundless opportunities for learning. There is something for everyone.
I tend to work with the younger children, around two to four years of age. These children aren’t typically focused on nature or science facts, unless it involves bugs. However, they do love books. Whether they are reading them or they get books read to them. There are a few books about plants, and I feel the children don’t even realize they are learning when they are reading these books. The kids just hear it’s a story and they enjoy the story not realizing it is a very informative book that is actually teaching them about plants and nature.
Brilliant! Longer books like this can be used with younger children–as you said, it’s a story. Even if you look at the pictures and make up the story, or use it to ask questions. The book is just a “seed of inspiration.” Great reflections!
Since I work with the 10-12 year olds, I could expand upon the book with extension activities. I could have the students research about vegetable gardens, when are the best times to plant, what structures do we need to plant certain veggies, what is the process to have them grow properly. They could then take the next step to build what they need for the plants, planting them, and maintain them to see the end result.
These extension activities are fantastic! Start with one and I am sure you will have new energy around a new project. Great reflections.
This book is a little advanced for my kiddos, but we have several books in our classroom that depict fruits and vegetables to introduce them to healthy eating habits, and we are always sure to mention what kind of fruit/vegetable purée we are giving each of them for lunch and showing them the jars as we feed them.
I like the way you are thinking. Since you have littles, look at the book as inspiration for YOU. What can you draw from it that will inspire you to look at the books that you have on the topic differently? I love that you are talking to them about fruits and vegetables. Well done.
Most of my age group consists of 3rd graders up to middles school. I am curious as to how I would incorporate educating about this while making it interesting and engaging.
I love the idea of being able to read a book and having the children do something like the experiment in the book. I think it would get our children excited about planting if we made it like a race. The children in the classroom are primarily boys and are very competitive, this will get them to all want to be involved and excited to begin to grow various plants and vegetables this spring. within are classroom i want to also look into other creative ways to get them excited about planting.
Yea! I love that you know your group and how to adapt the activities to suit their needs. Way to go.
For my age group of 5-6 year old students I would probably read the book allowed to my class during group time and periodically stop and ask what plants/peas were talked about on the page with a follow-up question of if they had tried those peas at home. I could also incorporate the peas shown in the book into our class’s garden beds for the children to try themselves during snack/lunch while referencing back to the book.
Love the idea of having peas for snack/lunch! Yum!
The Tiny Seed by Eric Carl is A great example of book we can use to introduce the idea of “Gardens that Feed” it is adaptable to my older group of toddlers and the pictures help
tell the story. I also chose the book because I feel the book that was read is above my group of the children I teach. Using the “Tiny Seed” would be easier to explain the concept planting and growing their own garden that feeds.
Yippee! You are finding other books that suit your age group. The Tiny Seeds is perfect! It’s all the same concepts–just finding the right activities, resources to teach and inspire. It’s also important to keep yourself inspired. Great job!
I think I would look for the carrot seed book for my age children … I would ask them questions on whether carrot was a fruit or vegetable and how big they think their carrot would grow etc…
Yea THE CARROT SEED BOOK!!! Great ideas!
Great story.
With our 2 and 3 y.o., we got our garden box ready by weeding and adding soil. We planted some pepper seeds and watered and checked on them every day
So fun! Something to look forward to…I am sure!
could you suggest some books for infants please
Sure thing! I will put a list together for you and post it in the Facebook Group. I will also put it in the class.
This book is not geared toward the age group that I work with, I believe that it is way beyond their comprehension level. I would have to look through the books that we have on hand in our onsite library to find a book that is more on their level. I would love to be able to encourage the kids in my glass to appreciate gardens and to learn all the beautiful things that they would be able to grow in a garden of their own.
Great! Glad you are inspired to seek more age-appropriate books. These are just “seeds of inspiration” to get the “soil turning.” Great job.
My children are under 3 years old. The theme this month is food. We can talk about edible gardens.
Yea! Even buying veggies from the grocery store for them to handle is a bonus. It’s the real deal and appeals to the senses.
I think these questions would be great for my children. They are ranged from 5-13 years of age. If I were to do this activity, I would want to pair the older children with the younger children.
INTERGENERATIONAL ACTIVITIES!!! Fantastic thinking! Younger kids love to be guided to the older kids and vice versa. This is a win-win for everyone. Let me know how it goes.
There is a book called “The Carrot Seed” which is about a little boy planting a seed and discovering how to make it grow. I am thinking this would be a good book to read to preschoolers with an activity of planting their own seeds and watching them grow over time.
This book is interesting and informative. I could see the K-3rd graders being into a story like this. On the other hand this might be a little tough to adapt to middle school students. A strategy I may implement would be to bring the sciences into it. Maybe we could explore different strategies used int he book to see which work best such as water quality, sun light exposure, temperature, etc.
Reading picture books to our toddlers outside then connecting it to the nature we have around us is a way to engage our children.
There is a lot of great information here about planning and implementing strategies for successful garden outcomes. I also need to further research to improve my understanding and knowledge on having a successful garden This story is very long so i would have to break it down into smaller parts
This is beyond the toddlers I have this year and I do miss the 5 year olds who moved on they were at such a different level and would have truely loved this story. I do think all children should be outside in the dirt and plants and explore their environment at their own level.
Love this book. I thought it was great how it made kids think at sweet vegetables could taste like sweet treats.
love the story great book
Because I am also thinking about adults, I might work this into ideas on how to save seeds. It’s a big part of what gardeners do, it’s historically important, it connects to historical ideas of travel/plant introduction/invasive, and it’s vital knowledge for the entire planet. Plus there is that cool underground storage in Norway, just in case.
Sounds fabulous! Lot’s of resources!
I love this story, but I’m afraid it is way beyond the level of my 3 and 4 year olds, for the most part; probably beyond my 5 year olds as well. For one thing, it’s just too long for the attention span I’m accustomed to working with… and for another, it references a point and a person in time that these young ones would have difficulty grasping. BUT… I think I might be able to re-work it (as preschool teachers often do!), inserting explanatory material and rephrasing where necessary, and most likely, breaking it down into “chapters” so that we might read it together over a period of several days, each day beginning with a quick review/reminder of what we had read and learned the day before.
Our discussions might include questions about varieties or “families” of peas and other vegetables and fruits. I have found over the years that children often relate to categories such as animals and foods and even quite inanimate things when you put them into “families,” something they already understand. I have often told kids that such-and-such a thing is a “cousin” of something else, and they nod – they get that!
This would also work when distributing plants into groups such as leaves, roots, and fruit, of course.
There is a lot of great info here about planning and implementing strategies for successful garden outcomes, and also promotes the value of doing further research to improve your understanding and knowledge.
I also really see the value in this story of reading about children cooperating and collaborating, in spite of wanting to win a competition. It’s good for kids to see that wanting to win doesn’t always translate into winning, despite your best efforts, and that you can be gracious and supportive of your peers throughout the process. (Great CSEFEL / Pyramid stuff, if your school is into that!)
Absolutely brilliant! Your reflections are exactly what I was hoping to see. Looking at books with a new lens and making it age appropriate is the aim. Love all your ideas for extensions for younger children. If reading the book is too much for your age group, don’t hesitate to simply “read” the pictures and talk about the story. I like this book because there are so many extension activities. Fantastic reflections.
I agree that this book is beyond the level of 3-5 years old. Some of the of the strategies for successful garden, importance of research are usefully for every age.
Pull what you can from this book–as it is just one “seed”. There are many more to choose from.
A few thoughts of activities to expand on the book:
-a pre-literacy sequencing activity where you have to make a book of the seed, roots, seedling and then final plant
-a sort of veggies that that are roots, leaves, and fruits where each child picks a picture of a veggie out of a hat/bag and then has to decide what group it fits in.
-we’ve had “pea olympics” where we record every few days how high each pea plant grew and the plant got the “gold medal” but the whole group helped to care for all the pea plants so it was a more neutral/friendly competition
Love these extension ideas! I like the pea Olympics idea and the plant getting the “gold medal”. Great ideas!
With my younger children I would ask what did they plant, then ask if they new the names of some of the varieties. I would also ask what they would want to try in our garden that they learned from the book.
Have to see if my library has this book.
Terrific! I love this book!