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Welcome 5
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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 5
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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 5
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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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Module 3: Gardens that Attract Wildlife 5
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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 5
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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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59 Comments
With my dad in the U.S. Air Force we lived on base housing most of the time. We didn’t have anyplace to have miniature gardens but I do remember my fourth grade teacher on Okinawa giving us projects to do which included flower collections and leaf collections. Our rock collections were put in egg cartons. Okinawa had so many different types of flowers such as hibiscus and one of the leaves was thick and rubbery. That year was my most favorite in school because Mrs. Oshiro and Mrs. Howell made everything fun and hands-on.
Your stories are wonderful. Memories that feel like they were yesterday. I am constantly amazed by how teachers can inspire and how it stays with children for years to come. Thank for sharing.
I really have memories about garden and to plant differences products. Because l grew in a small city which have a couple of farms .My grandparents and dad planted all kind of products, it means vegetables and fruits.I am happy to create alot activities about to plant and grow with our kids.This bring me amazing moments of my life in farms.
Growing vegetables is an amazing project.We can do a garden in wood boxes too in snowing and winter days.We can use real vegetables and we can put eyes, nose and mouth on them. And then we can pretend to be the vegetables who talk.
I have a childhood memory of creating Fairy Houses and/or Miniature Gardens. I did have theme gardens to play in growing up. My theme garden was pretty and simple. It has flowers over it and has cute mini rocks to put outside of the house and I could imagine if I was living their like a fairy princess.
What a wonderful memory!
I never had a garden, let alone a themed garden, to play in as a child. However, I think this is a wonderfully exciting idea to keep things fresh and interesting!
Awesome…thinkng about the outdoor classroom like we do the indoor classroom keeps the outdoor space fresh and exciting.
The closest thing I can think of is making a cave out of my sleeping bag and filling it with stuffed animals and other things. Not really the same thing though.
Actually this is brilliant. Not the same thing, but it’s an inspiration that can lead to other ideas. Trying something new. Be open to it.
Don’t think I can recall an instance of having a theme garden or a mini garden, I may have seen a few, but I don’t recall them leaving a noticeable impression on me.
I don’t have a memory of making fairy gardens when I was little but my friend started a business about 4 years ago making items to sell online. I helped make the doors for her and brainstorm ideas of how she could market her business…where so started doing kits and birthday parties
Very cool!
I use to build mud forts and bird houses out of milk cartons and fill up with seeds. Id hand my birdhouse next a tree by my window to watch them fly in and out.
Love this!
Growing up I was actually never fascinated with gardening. I mostly kept to myself and read books. When I finally moved to a more suburban neighborhood, I was mostly into playing sports or going outside on my bike. I never really had an urge to go and garden. My nana even tried to get me to grow some plants once and after a week they died. After that I gave up any hope I had on becoming a gardener.
Totally fine too! Just getting kids outdoors is the name of the game. If you don’t prefer to garden when you get there, that is OK. Are there cooperative games you could do with the kids that could teach them about working together, etc.?
In our classroom at B.C.L.C. we had an idea to start making a mini fairy garden/houses in our classroom for the winter and transport it to the outdoor space in the Spring as an ongoing project. This book will be a good tool to introduce them to a fairy garden and what it is and get them excited about the idea. We could theme whole months around this and try to make it as engaging, fun and creative as we can. Our children have great imaginations and engineering skills to work with these fairy houses.
Engineering is the name of the game with the older kids! So much to play with here. You could also use manufactured loose parts to create structures inside.
I remember creating fairy homes at school with my peers. We had a mossy area in the back which was a great material for a cozy fairy home. I haven’t seen my students making fairy homes so I would love to get their imaginations flowing with the Fairy Houses book.
Awesome!!! Get their imaginations flowing! All they need is a little guidance.
When I was a child we did not have any themed gardens around. This is the first time I have heard of themed gardens. Walking around my neighborhood, there was one particular house that had fairy houses in the trees out on their front lawn. I’m excited to learn more about fairy gardens and miniature gardens because they are fun little interactive outdoor activities the children can participate in.
Fun interactive activities. You nailed it!
Growing up, my family had a Humming Bird Garden. It was very awe-inspiring to see these uncommon beautiful creatures in motion.
So cool! They are amazing creatures. How could you invite hummingbirds to your outdoor space?
Growing up I never really had a themed garden to play in or experience. I would say the closest thing I had to a themed garden were the times in highschool when it was a nice day and sometimes our teachers would let us go out and read or work on our classwork outside. The making of themed gardens or play spaces outside was something that I think would be a wonderful addition to do for our class while the weather is still in a workable point in the year!
Awesome!
I never had any real fairy houses or mini gardens to explore as a kid, though they are a cool idea. The closest I had was the miniatures my grandfather made for me in his workshop that featured all kinds of miniature clay fruits/vegetables/animals.
Now that is a great memory!
Fairy houses are my passion
Yea! Have you introduced them to your kiddos? If so, how?
I loved planting as a kid as well as picking wild flowers.
I used to create outdoor gardens with my dolls and stuffed animals lived. I’d use materials such as rocks, flowers and leaves. These gardens were usually created in the warm weather and sometimes even has pools!
Great memory!
My cousin and her children would always make fairy gardens growing up. Once, I spent the day and made my own fairy garden, complete with a mushroom house and small swimming hole made out of a bottle cap. Creating this fairy garden helped foster my imagination and creativity.
Awesome. Can you offer materials to your children to help foster their creativity and imagination?
I am so not a green thumb when planting things so I never did those things
No worries…just being outdoors is enough
I can’t wait for spring and start planting!
Me too!
Love fairy gardens and miniature gardens. So many props with acorns and twigs and spools and leaves to build with!
My own children have been asking to build fairy houses. That would be an idea of an activity to with my toddlers. I think that is something that they would get excited about.
My sister and I always wanted a tree house but we didn’t have the means. So my dad cleared some branches through a line of bushes next to our house. It created a covered tunnel within the bushes which my sister and I could run through and play in. We would bring lawn chairs to sit and pretend there were fairies living there.
When I was little I remember making little fairy houses in the woods at my old house when I was growing up. I remember finding a tree and using the trunk and the roots to set up a little house for the fairies. I remember collecting leaves, sticks, rocks and other nature materials to set up a little house. One thing that I really remember doing that was so fun was that after I was done making the house I would go into my own house and come back to my fairy house after a couple of hours and see if anything changed. This was definitely one of my favorite things I did outside as a little kid in the woods.
I don’t have any experience or memories making a fairy or miniature garden growing up, but I do remember using my hot wheels and star wars toys in my grandfathers garden. I would pretend they where on some alien world were mega fauna and flora were abundant.
We used to make houses for what we would call PEEPS in middle school. It was an interesting work we had ratios and measurements and stress tests on the houses as well as how they deal with weather, whittling and wood craft was also fun.
I used to create fairy houses when I went camping with my girl scout troops! We used to have so much fun creating them! I teach older children outside of the center how to make fairy houses! They love it!
I would love to build fairy gardens this spring at my own daycare. I have done it before when I worked in a large center. i hope it will work as well with younger children that I have now.
Fairy gardens are in my memories . But now working with children we bring out action figures and barbie dolls and pretend we are making gardens for their friends.
When I was a child, I enjoyed building little houses with sticks and stones, bark and blossoms, and whatever else lay at hand. my imagination was focused on small animals: mice and bunnies and kittens and such, which I anthropomorphized so extensively that even today I have a hard time letting go of the notion that they are all living very human-like lives just out of sight and earshot! These structures were largely stand alone; I didn’t really have a garden. As I mentioned earlier, my dad helped me plant a few flowers and vegetables (radishes are vegetables, right? lol) in a small bed along the side of our yard, for perhaps 3 or 4 years, and it is likely that some of my houses made their way into the garden, but it is more likely that they ended up in the overgrown yard of our mysterious, reclusive neighbor 2 houses down. (It turned out that she was a hoarder of the highest order, and was likely mentally ill, as she let the house slip into disrepair and chaos… but here’s a twist: I bought that house 12 years ago, rehabbed it, and live there now! Gardens are a problem, though. There were 11 full sized trees in the small yard of this house when I bought it, and even though most of them have been removed, you cannot sink a spade anywhere out there without hitting roots. )
Love these memories of you creating and playing with little houses in your garden. What a fun story to have bought your neighbor’s house 12 years ago. I get the root issue! Have you ever thought of creating a container garden using different size pots? I did this under a tree that was THICK with roots. I wanted to create a “Welcome Garden” but was challenged with tree roots. I finally discovered that I could use terracotta pots of all different sizes. I planted my flowers in them. It is beautiful and such a fun and simple solution.
I do have one garden in the tiny front yard that I reclaimed by removing a very large maple that was dying and kept dropping large limbs in my neighbor’s driveway (never actually hit her car, but it did take down her power lines once during a storm; it took days for it to be restored, and I felt the least I could do was run extension cords from my house to her house to keep her refrigerator and some lights going!). I had the stump ground down, so a lot of the roots also got ground up, and I have managed to get a perennial flower and herb bed going, this will be year 3 coming up. I’m waiting to see how much has survived this winter. I’ve been slowly accumulating materials to build some raised beds out back. And I have also had a big container garden on the sunny side of the house for several years, although I skipped it last summer because I was too stressed out to make time for it (despite knowing how working in a garden is one of the best de-stressers there is!) Reflected or ambient sunlight gives my tomatoes and peppers quite the boost over there!
Love learning your garden story!
I my memories we will built will lose bricks that were available, because we lived in a construction zone.
Fascinating. How did this change your perspective on Nature?
We’ve made fairy houses before. Reactions were pretty mixed. Some of the children weren’t interested and others put lots of details into their fairy houses. Wondering how we could do it at school. We don’t really have a safe place to build them where they won’t be knocked over immediately. Maybe it would work if we brought paper to draw pictures of our houses and the camera and the children could photograph their own work.
So many different ways to make miniature gardens. I have seen programs create fairy houses on trays. I love the idea of drawing pictures and photographing their own work. Maybe even writing a story. Lot’s of possibilities. Just good to have the loose parts available for children to explore.
Snow day here! Curling up with a cup of coffee and my sketchbook while I do my lessons.
That sounds absolutely wonderful! You are going to LOVE this Module! The interview is amazing! Can’t wait to see your reflections. Enjoy the day home!