Thank You for Joining the Teaching Gardens Network!

Teaching Gardens Resources

• Teaching Garden Evaluation Journal – Consistent evaluation is a key to a well pruned and growing garden. This garden valuation journal can help track garden updates and progress.
  
  
• Teaching Gardens Network certificate - Download and fill in your information. Display it in your classroom, office or home as a reminder of your role in helping children and youth learn about healthy eating and gardening!
  
  
• Teaching Gardens Committee Tips - This guide provides an outline for suggested roles and structure for your Garden Committee led by the Teaching Garden Champion.
  
  
• Teaching Garden Equipment and Supplies – Whether you're starting your garden, or thinking about refreshing some of your materials, these are the basic tools and supplies we suggest you keep on hand.
  
  
• Funding Your Garden: Donations of money, materials and services from community members, businesses and charitable organizations can greatly enhance your garden program. Find other garden supporters to be your fundraising partners, and help you tell your garden’s story.
  
  
• Planting Tip Sheet – One of most important steps in a successful teaching garden is selecting what plants to use in the garden. This guide will go over the basic of types of crops into the time needed for common plants.
  
  
• Choosing Your Garden Site – While the location and area of each Teaching Garden may vary, any site can become a flourishing garden. Whatever your arrangement, consider these factors when selecting your garden site.
  
  
• Plant Day Celebration Tips – It is an exciting day when your garden is ready for planting! This guide goes over things to help you prepare for a successful plant day that’s fun for all.
  
  
• School Wellness Policy - Establish a school wellness policy that will includes goals and plans for improving student nutrition. Use the policy to guide you toward increasing the number of fruits and vegetables served at your school or program.


• Tips for healthy school snacks – Make the most of snack time or celebrations with healthier alternatives. Here are some suggestions for encouraging healthy options for your students.

Lesson Plans

• Create a Plant: Work in teams to draw creative plants, including six plant structures: roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, and seeds.
  
  
• Crops of The World:  Research a crop, then present the findings to the group allowing others to learn about a variety of crops.
  
  
• From Compost to Carrot Sticks: Students sequence a set of images to tell the story of how compost enriches soil, food grows in soil, and food waste is returned to compost in a food-compost cycle.
  
  
• Garden Journals: Students create their own garden journals and use them to record observations in the garden through drawing, writing, and painting. Journaling brings literacy, art, and creativity into the outdoors and can be used as a one-time activity, or as an ongoing routine.
  
  
• Garden Scavenger Hunt: Students hone observational skills by exploring the garden in pairs or teams following a scavenger hunt list. When an item on the list is found, check it off and search for the next item on the list.
  
  
• Garden Timelines: Reproduction is essential to the continued existence of every kind of organism. Plants and animals have unique and diverse life cycles. In this activity, students explore, then illustrate how leaves change as they grow and decay.
  
  
• Leaf Rubbings: Collect leaves and observe the veins in them and discuss what veins, then make leaf rubbings to illustrate the structures.
  
  
• Making A Rainbow of Fruits and Vegetables: Choose a fruit or vegetable to illustrate. Find a way to put all the illustrations together to create a class rainbow of fruits and vegetables.
  
  
• Pollinator Observations: Visit a spot where flowers are blooming and search for pollinators. Then observe one or more pollinators and record their observations.
  
  
• Swap and Find: Scientific Illustrations: Make detailed illustrations of a natural object, such as a leaf or a fruit. Students can then show off their drawings to the class or in groups.
  
  
• What’s In A Seed: Dissect seeds, observe the internal structures of the seeds, and make inferences about the function of each structure.
  
  
• What’s in The Soil: Dissect two very different soil samples: one from a dirt road or parking lot, and another from a grassy area, or healthy garden bed that has been amended with compost. Record and compare the contents of each substance.