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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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69 Comments
I liked the video. I love sharing all different types of cycles of life with the kids, it could be the life cycle of a butterfly or of a beautiful plant or flower growing. We don’t watch a lot of videos but I will be adding life cycle videos, I think they’ll learn a lot from them, and we could extend the learning from there. Again, wonderful ideas I’m getting from everyone’s comments. So many creative people!
I would build a type of colorful flower garden with:
Reading: observe how plants grow in days
Listening: birds chirping or bees flying
Writing: making poster/cards
Talking: how to make the plant grow better
Wow. I really loved that video its a good way to start children discussion about what they saw or observed. To start off with I think we can read different floriculture books related to the flowers. I think that way they can see realistic version of it alongside planting a rainbow. I think having them sit and listen next to a flower bed is also good. what do they hear. For writing I thought maybe they could paint the flowers they see or the different parts of plant. They could also if the flowers are soon ending their life cycle they can pick the petals and create their own pressed flower journal. For talking we can discuss what a flower needs to grow, we can sing the lifecycle song or plant art song, and discuss what parts they see.
Great reflections!
Very vocabulary rich curriculum can be put into attention while using real world hands on activities outside with the children. These activities include starting seeds to transplant to their home gardens or container gardens as well as care for the flowering beds and containers at childcare.
Understanding the need to have insects, bees and butterflies in the garden.
I really liked the video and will show it to the children
What I like about flowering gardens is seeing wildflowers. I like them to be full and crowded with a rainbow of colors all summer long.
Awesome!
I really liked the video that showed the life cycle of the flowers. I really loved how it used different variety of flowers and the process of the cycle with its environment. Sadly I do not have a garden of beauty and art but I think your ideas for planting a rainbow are very inspiring to apply once I get back to my center and get to this part of my unit in the curriculum. For one of the activities you can have children discuss the plants needs and draw it out once this is done or has been already discussed they can plant their own flower seeds and observe and draw out the plant going through its life cycle or even take pictures of it and once done make a collage out of those pictures.
Yea!!
This is an awesome book to share with children of any age. Here goes:
Reading-Read the book in a colorful area of your classroom or outdoors.
Read real seed packets and bulb bags that are pictured in the book.
Explain vocabulary words such as bulbs, corm, rhizome, sprout, seedling,
sow, blooms
Look through seed catalogs, cut out pictures and make a collage. Write
names of flowers and then read them to each other.
Instead of a collage, make this into a book.
Writing- Draw and color a rainbow, then draw and color a rainbow made in a garden.
Write about this experience in your journal.
Write the names of the plants on sticks like in the book.
Write in your journal your favorite color and favorite flower.
Draw pictures of seeds to be planted in your area of the outside garden
and keep drawing how that seed is sprouting and growing each week.
Talking- Talk about rainbows and how we can grow one.
Talk about flowers that may be growing in mom’s or grandparent’s gardens.
Memorize a poem and then recite it to the group.
Share how your plants are growing.
Listening- Listen for flower names as the book is being read. Have you heard of those before?
Which of those flower names has the same beginning sound as your name begins?
Listen as others explain their collages and journals.
Plan and prepare a garden area shaped like a rainbow. Have kids plant bulbs, seeds, and
seedlings in each of the areas that are labeled with the colors of the rainbow. Red flowers to the red area, orange to orange, etc. Which of the plants bloom first, etc.
This is fantastic…such thoughtful ideas and so many extensions. You will need to keep a binder for all your ideas as they are truly flowing. Great job!
I think it is great to show children what means all we talk with them.In special when we do an activity about a concept like flowers, vegetables, fruits and over all garden, etc.The kids love to see all what you say. They can watch how to plant, how grow the flowers, life cycle etc.It is wonderful a learning time for them.And they can use gross motor and much more developments when they are doing garden activities too.
Reading – A garden that a family makes it pretty and happy with different types of flowers.
Listening – This book shows how to make your own beautiful flowers.
Book Inspiration – Planting a rainbow by Lois Ehlert.
Writing – Making your favorite color and type of flower that you love to make. Also we can turn this into a matching game to find a color that matches with each flower and they can use materials like toys, crayons, and more to find a match.
Talking – A mother and daughter makes a beautiful garden that they plant bulbs and seeds together for to watch them grow and grow and turn into a rainbow full of colorful flowers like a fairy garden to walk in and see this happen.
I do have a Garden for Art and Beauty. This inspires me in this type of garden is beauty. It has a lot of colorful that you can tell which is which and butterflies would come over and sit with it. The extension activities I can think of using our inspired book are a matching color game, reading a book about colors, go a walk through a forest to see if they remember what color do you think they are (part of a cognitive development), and make a flower by using color paper, scissors, and glue to make this of a artwork of your favorite flower.
Planting bulbs with kids is so much fun!
We planted flowers in front of the school and vegetables inside the playground. Will plant more of a mix next spring.
Awesome!
We do have garden of beauty and arts. We change them seasonally. The colors inspire me to plant more around the area that attract the eye. I would have the children help outside with the garden adding there own signs artwork plants.
Can’t wait to see what you add? Can you add children’s art?
With this type of garden I think what really inspires me is the beauty of the garden and all the different type of flowers. I believe that showing all my students the different types of flowers and color for a science lesson is great.
Awesome!
I personally have an interest in making this next spring a garden for art. Perhaps utilizing the flower beds that we already have and having the students paint signs of what colors the flowers will be when they bloom. Additionally, we could even just getting them outside to decorate the actual wooden beds themselves with paint, chalk or any different kinds of art mediums that we have.
Ideas are flowing! Don’t wait until Spring. What can you do now that will lead to Spring?
Id like to place visuals to our flower beds with graphs and measuring tools to keep data on our gardens.
Brilliant!
the beauty of flowers is just amazing … I would have my children draw flowers and put them around the room so they could experience the beauty of all the colors …
Fun. Have you thought about adding flowers and plants to your classroom?
At my center we do not have a garden at all. Now that the weather is getting colder I am pretty sure we won’t have one for a while. But if we did, I feel the bright colors and the evolution of the plant would inspire not only me but the children.
Where do the children go outdoors? What is your space like? What can you add for beauty? Potted plants are always a fun and easy solutions.
I love this video I can’t wait to show to my students.very colorful !
Yea!!!!
We can take alot from the story painting a rainbow. There are a ton of activities we could do with the children such as finding colors in our art supplies and comparing them to the colors of certain plants in our garden. We could use the colors we found to create a picture of our garden. Kim is very into gardening and alexandria is learning more about it from kim to help incorporate it more into our classroom.
Incredible extensions! Keep them coming.
We actually have a creative art folder dedicated to a lot of ideas inspired by this lesson, and some of which are unique to itself.
So awesome! Getting your creative ideas organized is a FANTASTIC step! Way to go!
I love this video I can’t wait to show to my students.very colorful 🙂
I can’t wait to show my kids this video! It is so cool with the sounds and visual of the roots powering through the dirt. When we do stretches during circle time, I have the children use their hands as seeds and push up up up as they go through the dirt, opening their hands up at the end representing a flower.
Kids love the physical lessons! Awesome job!
We are working to develop the playground at my center into more of a garden for art and beauty. We have colorful tapestries hanging from trees which blow in the wind. I am inspired now to think about putting up wind chimes, pinwheels to add some more color to the space we have outdoors. As well as planting a variety of flowers for the children to engage with and watch grow.
Love this image!
I have so many ideas or gardens including art and beauty, but I feel that art it such a creative aspect of children’s development that they should be part of it. Having the children plant their own garden, using their own imagination is best. I would want the children to be able to use their imagination, rather than it be teacher centered. Children learn best through experimentation.
Yes!!!
Our outdoor area lacks color and beauty, we do not have this type of garden. I think by researching and planting a rainbow with our children could be a great project. Color just makes an area so much more inviting and happier. I think it would improve everyone’s mood by just adding color
Absolutely. There is research around this!
We do not have this type of garden, our outdoor area lacks color and beauty. I think by researching and planting a rainbow with our children could be a great project. Color just makes an area so much more inviting and happier. I think it would improve everyone’s mood by just adding color
GREAt!!
We had a garden for beauty but i was a work in process all year. Gardens like this I think are inspired by the intimation of nature, both in pattern and color. Next year I would like do an extension activity in one of the garden beds when we try and create a simple design using the color of the flowers.
Very cool!
The garden beds in the front of the building are for art and beauty. They help create a warm and welcoming entrance as you walk in to the center. Again, it is difficult to upkeep in the winter months. Creating something to put in there during the winter would help make it beautiful all year long!
Think about greenery for these beds during the winter months. Or sculptures that will be enjoyed
Great video and ideas!
Glad you enjoyed them!
I love the idea of working in stories and trips. A journal in witch you take the role of a naturalist would be pretty cool and it was something that I could use with the kids in just about any season.
I would love to figure out a way to have color flowers outside our window but am afraid the older children will pick them
Great video!
Planting a Rainbow is a book that we had read many times during spring time. Some of activities that we have done is bringing similar plants in the classroom explore parts of the plants, colors, symmetry, patterns in nature and naming different flowers.
I like the idea of these types of gardens. I think that the kids would enjoy seeing all the wonderful colors that the garden can offer.
The story of flowers is the Best., Just wonderful will be my next watch .
Keep log with children’s comments Have them draw pictures of what flowers may look like after exploring the seeds Draw pictures of what they wold like their garden to look like
Awesome! Keep those ideas coming.
I love the tiny seed and planting a rainbow . Planting for me and my own children as well as my students has always played a big part of my education.
Our older kids at the center really enjoy gardening but gardening is beyond the age of the children I work with. We could have them paint rocks and decorate the garden with their rocks so they feel they are a part of the garden!
This garden and gardens for wildlife are my favorite. For my group it is all about the colors. That’s all we can really talk. I can’t wait to get this book for them.
I wanted to echo the thoughts of others regarding that fabulous YouTube video. Just wonderful! Watched it several times over, myself, then put it on as a choice activity in the classroom yesterday.
AND… because I used the link to play the video directly on YouTube, I discovered several additional videos right there on the same page that my kids enjoyed and that we can link to further activities. These videos included readings of “Flower Garden” by Eve Bunting (on this module’s list, and a great companion book to “Planting a Rainbow.”) and “Lola Plants a Garden”, which someone else here mentioned.
I have begun doing a little research to see what resources are available locally in terms of field trips… Most years, I take my class to the Acton Arboretum (in Acton MA, on Rte. 27) in the spring; trees, of course, but also lots of flowers and flowering shrubbery and trees, and a huge lilac garden; wonderful place! Another lovely place to walk in the warm weather is Benson’s Park in Hudson NH; a beautiful repurposing of the former Benson’s Wild Animal Farm. I considered Garden in the Woods in Framingham, but I think it’s further than they’d let us travel. But right here in Lowell, there are lots of public parks and spaces that are all a-bloom in the springtime. The City Department of Parks web page says they are responsible for “the maintenance and management of … 60+ road islands and squares, (and) 90+ parks and playgrounds;” “all monuments, ornamental parks, islands, circles and squares and flag poles are prepared in anticipation of Memorial Weekend and when all parks and playgrounds and… specialty areas are opened for the season.” Surely some of that beautification calls for a visit!
Additionally, the Department helps “coordinate the efforts of various schools who undertake cleanup and beautification projects.” It might be too late for us to pull it together for this year, but I think it would be WAY cool to see a local garden spot with a sign crediting our program with the job! (The City additionally operates a sponsorship program where individuals, families, organizations, or businesses can offer to maintain one of the above mentioned “monuments, ornamental parks, islands, circles and squares and flag poles” and the City provides a lovely sign acknowledging whoever has taken it on; it mostly seems to work well!)
OMG my grandmother used to take me to Benson’s Animal Park. Memories!!
🙂
That Story of Flowers You Tube is amazing. I just want to have it playing on demand in my room in the quiet corner. Thank you for finding this gem.
Yes…a gem! Thrilled you enjoyed it. 🙂
Reading- The Tiny Seed, Lola Plants a Garden, Lily’s Garden, Flower Garden.
Listening -describe seeds, bulbs, petal shapes, colors, stems, leaves.
Writing- write a story about your flower or garden, draw things in your garden
Talking- label the parts of flowers, name the flowers, describe the smells.
Looking good!