School+Garden+Lessons+-+1st+and+5th+grade+-+Alissa+Shoemaker


 * School Garden Project**


 * Introduction**

There are so many inspirations for this project. Most recently, First Lady Michelle Obama oversaw the installation of a fruit and vegetable garden on the grounds of the White House. Children from a nearby school were asked to help plant and maintain the garden in the hopes that the experience would give them a new appreciation of these foods through a more hands-on experience. The children were involved in the planting, harvesting and cooking of the fruits and vegetables produced. The White House kitchen staff is also using the produce from the garden in the elaborate meals they serve to visiting heads of state. To get more information about this project, watch the video at: [|__http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/The-Story-of-the-White-House-Garden/__].

In addition to this inspiring story, I have also been inspired by the story of the Edible Schoolyard. Famous chef and owner of Chez Panisse, Alice Waters, is a passionate advocate of eating locally produced, seasonal produce. She made the decision to share her knowledge with students at Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School in Berkley, CA. The Edible Schoolyard is the result of this collaboration. For information about this project, please watch the video at: [|__http://www.edibleschoolyard.org/video__].

The projects mentioned above are just two of many school garden projects happening across the country. There are so many reasons to encourage this type of project in a school: battling childhood obesity, environmental issues, teaching children to appreciate healthier foods. In addition to those reasons, a school garden project is an ideal school-wide project to that uses many of the core curriculum standards as well as inquiry-based learning models. The National Science Education Standards and the Division of Elementary, Secondary, and Informal Eduction (2001) states, “inquiry is central to science learning” (qtd. in Callison 66).

The following lesson plans are written with the assumption that the school already has a school garden and gardener. They could be easily altered for schools that do not have this luxury. Students would simply need to have access to a vegetable garden and gardener.


 * Information Skill**

Both lessons include a requirement for students to interview an expert in the field of gardening. Children are naturally full of questions. As Callison notes, “their first experience in school, unfortunately, is to learn not to ask too many questions” (Callison 408). What a shame! The interview can be such an important way to get information from a primary source. These lessons are designed to help students improve upon their natural instinct to question.


 * Standards**

Both projects focus on the Indiana Core Science Standard 5 - Life Science, although the projects include more grade specific standards. Each project also focuses on the 21st Century Learner Standard 1.1.1 which states, “Follow an inquiry-based process in seeking knowledge in curricular subjects, and make the real-world connection for using this process in own life” (Standards for the 21-st Century Learner).


 * Audience**

I currently work as an instructional assistant in an elementary school. I used this school as a model for this project. The school has approximately 725 students. It is one of 7 elementary schools in the Metropolitan School District of Washington Township in Indianapolis. Washington Township is one of the more affluent urban areas in Indianapolis proper, however this school is in a lower income part of the township. Almost 60% of the students are on the free lunch program. It is also a heavily minority school with students that are 43% African-American, 28% hispanic and 19% caucasian. Class sizes are around 20-25 students.


 * Collaboration**

A school garden project is one that can involve every class and teacher in the school. The planning and fundraising needed to begin a project like this would require the support of the entire staff. For the two lesson plans included here, the classroom teach would need to rely heavily upon the school media specialist and school gardener. Daniel Callison states “the school library media program has as much an obligation to provide an environment that encourages use of human resources as it does provision of print and electronic material” (Callison 407). In accordance with that statement, the media specialist in this project will be heavily involved in teaching the students to improve their interviewing skills.


 * Lesson 1 - First Grade**

Small groups of students will tour the school garden with the head gardener. They will then interview the gardener about what plants need to survive.




 * Lesson 2 - Fifth Grade**

The class will produce a comic book about why the plants in the school garden survive well in our environment.




 * Feedback**

For the first grade students, I would conduct student conferences to talk about how effective their interviews were. I would also ask the students how they felt about the assignment. In any collaborative project, a meeting should be held between the collaborating teachers to determine the method of evaluation for students. A goal should be set ahead of time for the scores the teachers hope students will receive. If he scores end up being lower than expected, then the project should be reevaluated to include more instruction.

With the fifth grade project, the students will be evaluating each other as well as themselves. This evaluation will count toward their final grade. As with the first grade project, the collaborating teachers should meet before the start of the project to determine their goals for final project grades. If the students do not meet those expectations, the lesson should be reevaluated.


 * Lesson Comparison**

The first grade lesson necessarily relies heavily on teacher instruction and less on written assignments. The students at this age are just learning to read and write. In addition to practicing their interview skills, this project will allow them to practice writing complete sentences and learning to spell new words.

By the time students reach fifth grade, they have much stronger language and computer skills. They will also be more capable of independent work on an assignment. The interview portion of this assignment will be much more student directed. The groups will need to schedule their own interview. The interview will also be just one of three sources the students will be required to use. The National Academy of Science states that students in grades 5-8 should be able to “use appropriate tools and techniques to gather, analyze, and interpret data” (qtd. in Callison 176). This project will give students an opportunity to use many tools to create their final project.


 * Works cited**

Callison, Daniel. "Models for Information Inquiry, Composition, and Scientific Method." The Blue Book on Information Age Inquiry, Instruction and Literacy. Freeport: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. 50-68. Print.

Callison, Daniel. "The Student as Information Scientist." The Blue Book on Information Age Inquiry, Instruction and Literacy. Freeport: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. 170-184. Print.

Standards for the 21-st Century Learner. Chicago: American Association of School Librarians, 2007. Print.

Callison, Daniel. "Interview." The Blue Book on Information Age Inquiry, Instruction and Literacy. Freeport: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. 407-10. Print.


 * Additions to this page... By: Megan Cline**

I loved the idea of the schoolyard garden after reading this lesson. The school I currently teach at has a courtyard that is currently over run with weeds. By making it into a garden would be a great use of the space and give the students something to take pride in. The lesson extension I have written is for kindergarten age children.
 * Introduction:**

Indiana Core Science Standard 1 - The Nature of Science Ask open-ended questions about events and processes in the natural world and make careful observations in an effort to answer these questions.
 * Standards:**
 * K.1.2** Raise questions about the natural world.
 * K.2.2** Draw pictures and write words to describe objects & experiences.

Students will learn that plants need air, sunlight, and water to survive and be able to record observations of the plants.
 * Lesson Objectives:**

The book __The Tiny Seed__ Plants journal Pencil Crayons Flower seeds Shovel Water
 * Materials Needed:**

Teacher will read __The Tiny Seed__ as an introduction to plants. Discuss with the class why the seeds could not survive when it landed in the desert or in the ocean or on top of the mountain. Explain to the class that most plants need air, sunlight, and water to survive.
 * Lesson:** (This lesson needs to be done in the spring.)
 * Day 1 (20 minutes)**

Teacher will walk the class to the courtyard. Review with the class what plants need to survive. Children can make observations about what the courtyard looks like in their plant journal. (Draw pictures and write words if can.) Explain to the children that we will be planting flowers in the courtyard and making observations every week about the plants progress.
 * Day 2 (20 minutes**)

Teacher will walk the class to the courtyard to plant the flowers. Each child will get to plant 1 flower. They will dig a hole and put the flower seed in. Students will draw in their plant journals about planting the seeds and their observations.
 * Day 3 (30 minutes)**

Teacher will walk the class to the courtyard to check on the flowers. Each week the children will make observations about the flowers. They will draw/write in their plant journal the observations they have made. If the child's flower did not do anything the child may draw an observation they see on a different student's flower. They will water the plants if it has not rained in a few days.
 * Day 4 - 10 (20 minutes each week)**

The teacher will check the student's plant journal for their observations. This will show the teacher if the child can describe the experiences they have had. An example of a student's journal is below:
 * Assessment:**