Kidsgardening
About this resource
- Appropriate grades
- K–12
- Subjects
- science (agriculture, biology and life science, environmental science)
- Provider
- National Gardening Association
- Special requirements
- Acrobat Reader plugin required.
Legal
This catalog record is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. This license applies to the content of this page only and does not apply to the referenced website.
What better way to celebrate springtime than by planting a garden? Plan, research, share ideas, and tell your stories on this website devoted to gardens, mini-ecosystems and everything you might grow in or near your home or classroom.
Educator's guide
Kidsgardening provides resources to help you plan for your class gardening experience. From a one-day nature walk to a long-term environmental improvement project, this site offers ideas, in-depth guidance, and opportunities to share ideas. This authoritative site is sponsored by the National Gardening Association and includes extensive real-world examples and tips and stories from classrooms like yours.
Start with the themes pages for some interdisciplinary ideas for integrating the gardening experiences across the curriculum. What better way to study ecosystems, biomes, interdependence, soil, regions and more than by Exploring Wild and Native Plants Cultivating Literacy in the Garden. This theme includes recommended books with gardening themes from grades 1 through 8. From using seed catalogs in English as a Second Language in classrooms to instructions for analysis of student responses to Catch them Thinking, the activities and reflections of teachers interviewed provide innovative ideas for reading instruction and assessment. Other themes presented include math integration, design elements, scientific method, economic and business skills.
The Digging Deeper page provides search and category views that can help you find just what you need in the classroom stories and activities. Topics include ecosystems, greenhouses, multicultural & historic gardening, special populations and more. Other resource areas on the site include ideas and links for getting a grant to support gardening projects and additional ideas for fundraising. Special publications like the incredible Seeds Feed the World article are also available.
While membership in the National Gardening Association provides access to member-only areas and free or reduced fees for professional development opportunities, there is still plenty of free content available for anyone visiting this site. Even for non-members, online professional development offerings are very reasonably priced. Many supplemental resources, including books, games and visuals are available for sale on the site.
