Provided by: New York Botanical Garden |Published on: April 6, 2024
Lesson Plans Grades 3-5, 6-8, k-2
Synopsis
This first resource in the series provides an introductory video, tip sheets, teacher support documents, and two lessons to help your students map out a garden spot an then write persuasively to their peers about their choice of garden theme.
Teachers will learn the proper tools, classroom management strategies, budget considerations, and botany terms to help them start a garden for their students.
The resource also includes grant opportunities and resources for New York City teachers.
The lesson plans suggest various final products students can create based on their interests.
The resource provides a comprehensive collection of information teachers can use to start their school garden, accounting for curriculum, materials, and space considerations.
Teachers anywhere in the United States can benefit from the information the resource provides.
Additional Prerequisites
The Mapping the Garden lesson plan references a Garden Planning Activity sheet that is not included.
Students should know the elements of a map and how to find points on a coordinate plane.
For the Persuasive Writing in the Garden lesson, teachers must find anchor texts to use persuasive writing examples and provide different types or themes of gardens to research.
Differentiation
Older students completing the Mapping the Garden activity can make math connections by finding the perimeter or area of map features.
Students can study irrigation systems and participate in an engineering activity to develop the best system for their school garden.
A school garden can spark a conversation about the importance of biodiversity and how climate change impacts it.
Younger students completing the Persuasive Writing in the Garden activity can do a simplified version, working from a sentence stem such as, "Our garden should__because__."