Let's Get Growing...Five Ways To Grow With Your Students

It is that time of year at our school...garden time! We were the proud recipients of a Farm to School Grant five years ago and we are still growing strong!

This week we started planting seeds in two grade levels. So I thought I would give you some tips on how to plant seeds with your students...

 1. Have a planting station ready with soil, seeds, water, trays, and towels
2. Preteach how to plant seeds and practice this mantra:
-scoop
-pat
-poke
-drop
-cover
-water

3. While some students are planting have an activity for the others to do...I usually have them do an activity such as how to read a seed packet, how to plant a seed, or what do seeds need.

4. What they will be planted in? We do peet pots now, we have tried cups with holes in the bottom (too expensive), milk cartons (need lots of water and hard to cover with plastic to keep the water cycle doing the job), we have tried egg cartons, too (too little for my taste)

5. Where will you put the containers or we like to call them seed babies? We have grow lights...I mean huge ones, but if you don't...use the window sill or you can rig up a light source using pvc pipes and florescent grow lights found at hardware stores.

The big think is not over water, under water, have them get too leggy...okay gardening isn't an easy task, but when I see that a seed is magic and they can put their plants in the ground when it is warm enough it is worth the work to keep the babies alive!


Need some help with your plant unit? Check out this plant pack that I just finished up on!

FIND THE PLANT PACK HERE!

Let's get growing together! Plant a seed...plant ideas for your students...learning to garden is a life long skill that they can take with them. Whether it be in a small cup, a container, or a garden...growing seeds can really be a great way to bring the outdoors in!

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Planting a Seed...

We met today as a farm to school group and we came up with a great idea to connect our farm to school sites...planting a seed. This is a way for people to leave comments and ideas for us to share. Each week, I will plant a seed of an activity or recipe we used in our after school or classroom curriculum that ties in our garden to life lessons. So here it goes, friends.

My first plant a seed...  comes to us through our need to include our high schools into our farm to school initiative. Today, we met with our high school Ag teachers and the food nutrition coordinator at our high schools.  The idea...We are growing cherry tomatoes this winter in our green houses. The tomatoes that we grow will be given to our lunchrooms as featured veggies and the Consumer Ed departments. The students will be using recipes to make things with tomatoes. Ideas were salsa and pasta salad. Our "woods" class could make raised beds, and our marketing classes could promote the products. Ag can promote that their club isn't just about cows or living on a farm, it is about gardening and more. Just some ideas for you as the cold weather brings us no fresh veggies, but time to plan for the spring.

Tomato Inspiration!

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