What activities are carried out in a school garden?

planter for school garden activities

Schools have been running for almost a month now. Children already have to get up early to go to school and learn new knowledge there. One of them is the activities of the school garden, which more and more schools are starting to make children aware of the environment and about plants.

But Do you know what activities are carried out in a school garden? We have researched about it and this is what they normally do.

collect seeds

One of the first activities in the school garden is to collect seeds. This is not really an action that takes place in the garden (unless there are plants in it and the seeds can be obtained but it is usually very rare).

Actually, what is done is to plan what is going to be planted in order to acquire the seeds.

Now, another of the related activities may be that of recover the seeds that, in the previous course, have been collected. And it is that it can be an opportunity to teach children how seeds are preserved and stored to be planted at this time.

As for the seeds, those that are of rapid or intermediate growth, with the objective that children see progress in the school garden and feel happy to know that, due to their care, the plants are fine. In addition, they are chosen to be resistant, and even to tolerate a little drought (for the weekend).

Sowing seeds

boy checking plants in the school garden

boy checking plants in the school garden

It is perhaps one of the school garden activities that children like the most, especially if they can see the development on a day-to-day basis. For this reason, many teachers instead of planting in the garden, they allow them to do so in transparent jars first in order to see how the roots unfold, how the stem grows and the leaves come out, etc.

In addition, this allows later to carry out the transplant function, that teaches them how delicate they should be with plants.

It is even possible to do both, that is, plant seeds in jars and also seeds in a part of the garden, so they can see how it would be done both ways.

water the seeds

Once sown, these seeds must be taken care of, otherwise the plant will die. That’s why, the tutors usually give them a class to learn about the plants they have planted and thus know what the care is they need (in terms of light, irrigation, etc.).

Within the maintenance tasks, the best known is going to be irrigation. And in this the teachers can teach them different ways to keep plants watering, either with self-irrigation, or doing it manually themselves, so that they take responsibility for it.

Being a task that they may have to do almost every day, this helps create work groups to take care of the garden every daythus promoting group work.

weeding

children working in school garden

children working in school garden

And speaking of this group work, another of the activities to be carried out is that of clean the area of ​​weeds. This can be done in conjunction with irrigation, so the group, when they go to water, must also be aware that they may have to pull out weeds that prevent the plant from growing healthy (or with energy).

Depending on the size of the orchard, You may just need your hands or you may have to use tools to remove those weeds.

Compost

This is not done in all schools, but in those that are, it is a very fun activity for children. First, because they are going to make that “energy shot” for the plant, but also because it helps them discover new smells, to do something with their hands to improve the state of their plants (because yes, they may consider them their own and that gives them more responsibility).

The fact of making an organic fertilizer allows them to discover different ways of “reusing” some elements of everyday life and how it all mixes. In addition, since it is not something that they will use at first, but that they will surely do it in the spring, they will see how everything changes over time until they obtain the result (hence, patience is encouraged).

A scarecrow

This is perhaps one of the most fun school garden activities you will ever have, but it also has an educational component.

On the one hand, they are going to have fun because they will be able to create a doll that prevents birds from approaching their plants or cropsto be able to enjoy after the fruit of their labor. On the other hand, when creating that character, children tend to be creative and like to do something like that because for them it is like a game.

Harvest

vegetables picked from the garden

vegetables picked from the garden

If what has been sown are fruits, it is possible that, at the end of the course, the fruits of the plants can be harvested, with which the children can see how the activities of the school garden have given results. The good thing would be to distribute all those fruits with the class who has collaborated in the garden so that they can eat and enjoy them (if they are not allergic, of course).

Another option within the collection is take the seeds out of those plantswhich will become the seeds that will be planted in the following school year so that you do not have to spend money to buy new ones or ask parents for seeds (although this can actually help them to participate in the garden as well).

Other related activities

Apart from all the tasks that you have in a school garden, there are many more that can be attached to this. Some of them can be:

  • Workshops to identify garden insects: snails, millipedes, ants, worms, earwigs…
  • Plant identification.
  • Research of leaves or plants. In the sense of using magnifying glasses to take a closer look at plants and identify the different parts or see what the leaves are like.
  • Works related to planted plants (for example, to find out what the care is or how they evolve).

In each school different school garden activities are carried outnot all that we have said (and others that may occur) are always carried out, so if they have a garden, it is safest that they try to teach children different values ​​through the care of plants. Does your children’s school have a school garden? What activities do they carry out?

What activities are carried out in a school garden?

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