Family gardening in rural North Carolina

This lesson for grade one uses a series of activities related to plants and gardening to help students learn about gardening, plant life, families, and making healthy choices.

A lesson plan for grade 1 Healthful Living, Science, and Social Studies

By Penny Willard

Learn more

• Gardening with Kids This website can be used to help teachers or families make gardening a pleasurable experience. A suggested website to share with families as you communicate their child’s learning experiences about plants and gardening.
• My First Garden: A Children's Guide to the World of Fun and Clever Gardening This website from the University of Illinois is intended for 4th graders, but the information can very easily be used for a first-grade class. The website offers a gallery of pictures that shows young children with their gardens.

Related pages

• Fun with fruits and vegetables: The activities will help the student identify, describe, and classify fruits and vegetables and learn how each grows.
• Getting down & dirty with soils: In this lesson, we will explore different kinds of soil (humus, sand, clay). The students will plant seeds in the different soils as part of further exploration.
• Hands-on biology: Hands-on science exploration clarifies difficult concepts and engages learners who have difficulty in more traditional classrooms. This article looks at an inquiry-based classroom that meets the needs of all of its students.

Related topics

• Learn more about biology, discovery learning, gardening, graphic organizers, hands-on, health, journaling, nutrition, plants, science, and social studies.

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This lesson uses images and hands-on activities to teach students about gardening, plant life, families, and making healthy choices. Through the use of PowerPoint presentations, students will take a virtual field trip to a North Carolina family farm.

Learning outcomes

Students will:

• gain an understanding of the concept of gardening and its importance in the lives of some families in North Carolina.
• learn how gardening can provide families with healthy foods all year round, through canning and other methods of preservation.
• learn to identify different types of fruits and vegetables that families grow in North Carolina.
• become aware of the parts of a plant and the needs of all plants.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

This lesson plan would be best completed through a thematic unit that would last two weeks. Approximately one hour per day should be devoted to completing all of the activities.

Materials needed

• PowerPoint presentations:
  • “Field Trip to a Family Garden, Part One”
  • “Field Trip to a Family Garden, Part Two”
  • “Field Trip to a Family Garden, Part Three”
• Student handouts:
  • Plant letter to families
  • Tasting party worksheet
• Microsoft PowerPoint software
• SMART Board or computer and projector to show PowerPoint presentations (Alternatively, you can do this lesson in a computer lab in which each computer has the PowerPoint presentations pre-loaded.)
• Printer
• Internet access (optional)
• Day three:
  • Apple butter recipe (The author recommends the Quick and Easy Apple Butter recipe from the Cajun Cooking Recipes website.)
  • Apple butter ingredients (Ingredients will vary according to recipe.)
  • Microwave
  • Food processor
  • Crackers
  • Paper plates
  • Plastic knives
• Day four:
  • Ziplock sandwich bags
  • Paper towels — one for each student
  • Water
  • Assortment of seeds (You may choose to provide these, or you may have students bring them in.)
  • Accessible window with good exposure to the sun
  • Paper, markers, and pencils
  • Potting soil
  • Styrofoam or paper cup for each student
  • Permanent marker to label each student’s cup
• Day five:
  • Assortment of fruits and vegetables for tasting party
  • Paper plates
  • Plastic knives and forks

Pre-activities

• You may want to contact parent volunteers ahead of time to request help with the apple-butter-making activity on day three of the lesson.
• The following pre-activities will need to be completed before the hands-on activity on day four:
  1. Plan to begin activity four on a Monday. The students will complete most of the steps Monday, conduct observations Monday through Friday, and complete the last observation on the second Monday before planting their seeds.
  2. Arrange to have plant seeds for each student. You may choose to have families send seeds from home; this will work to your benefit because your class will get to experience a variety of plants.
  3. Label a Ziplock sandwich bag for each student with his or her name and the kind of seed the student will grow, and find a window space large enough to tape the Ziplock bags for one week.
  4. Create a booklet called “My Plant Journal” for each student, with a cover and six pages (one page for all six days of observation).
  5. Create a booklet called “My Plant at Home Journal” for each student, with a cover and five pages (one page for all five days of observation).
  6. Prepare a styrofoam or paper cup with soil for each child’s seed planting.
• Before beginning the tasting party activity on day five, prepare the fruits and vegetables for the students to taste. You may also need to adapt the tasting party worksheet.

Activities

Day one

1. Introduce the word garden to your class, and ask the students what they know about the word. Create a K-W-L chart with the word garden in the center of the map. The K-W-L chart will help teachers and students visualize what they already know (K), what they want to know (W), and, later, what they have learned (L). During the pre-activities, record everything the students know about gardens in the K column of the K-W-L chart.
2. Talk about how gardening is very common in North Carolina, and discuss how families in North Carolina use gardens. Explain that families must have foods to eat and that a garden is a way to fulfill this need. Facilitate a discussion about what the class wants to know about gardens, and fill in the W column of the K-W-L chart.
3. Introduce the vocabulary terms that are listed below under critical vocabulary, and discuss their meanings. This can help assess the students’ prior knowledge and experiences. Help students understand that some members of the class know more about gardens than others because their families participate in gardening. This can help them to understand that all families are different.
4. If you’ve never used a PowerPoint presentation before with your class, explain to the students that PowerPoint is software that allows us to create a set of slides that may include words and pictures.
5. Show the students the first PowerPoint presentation — “Field Trip to a Family Garden, Part One.” As you show the presentation, you can pause to discuss each of the slides. This will provide ample opportunity for open class discussion. Use the photographs to provide a starting point for discussion and as a way to help the students realize their own personal knowledge and experiences.
6. After viewing the PowerPoint presentation, revisit the garden K-W-L chart, and have the students add to the L column, drawing on what they’ve learned from the presentation and discussion.

Day two

1. Begin by explaining that there are different kinds of gardens. Remind students about the fruit/vegetable garden that was the focus of the previous day’s lesson. Explain that many times families also garden for beauty and pleasure by planting flower gardens.
2. Complete a bubble map with the words flower garden in the center. Facilitate a class discussion to help assess the students’ knowledge of flower gardens.
3. After the discussion and bubble map are completed, show the second PowerPoint presentation, “Field Trip to a Family Garden, Part Two.” This presentation will allow the students to view some examples of flowers that grow in North Carolina.
4. To conclude this activity, you may choose to have the class go on a scavenger hunt for flowers and greenery that have been planted around the school campus. As you tour the school grounds, help to point out these plants in the landscape.
5. Have the students record their findings in a drawing that represents the flowers and vegetation of the school landscape.

Day three

1. Review the K-W-L chart from day one of the unit, and remind students that gardening is a good source of healthy foods. Ask the following questions to assess students’ knowledge:
   • After you pick fruits and vegetables, can you keep them for a long time?
   • How do you keep them from spoiling?
   • Where can families put all of the food they grow?
2. After asking and discussing the questions, show the third PowerPoint presentation, “Field Trip to a Family Garden, Part Three.” This presentation will help students learn how families in North Carolina preserve the fruits and vegetables they grow in their gardens.
3. As an extension to this activity, you may choose to ask families to send in a sample of home-canned fruits and vegetables for students to share with their classmates.
4. To help the students understand how fruits and vegetables can be made into healthy snacks, teach them how to make apple butter. A good recipe to use with students is the Quick and Easy Apple Butter recipe from the Cajun Cooking Recipes website. For this activity, you may want to ask parent volunteers to join in for some apple-butter-making fun. After the recipe is created, serve the apple butter with crackers so students, teachers, and volunteers can enjoy the healthy snack.

Day four

Note: Begin this activity on a Monday. Have students complete the first seven steps on Monday, conduct observations Monday through Friday, and complete the last observation on the second Monday before planting their seeds.

1. Explain to the students that you are going to observe the process of plant growth. Review the basic needs of a plant: water, soil, sunlight, and air.
2. Have each student fold a paper towel into the shape of a square.
3. Have all students wet their paper towels and wring out any extra moisture. The paper towels do not need to be dripping wet.
4. Have each student put his or her wet towel in the Ziplock bag marked with the student’s name.
5. Have each student add one to three seeds before closing the bag.
6. Allow the students to take their bags of seeds to their desks for the first day of observation. Have each student observe the bag of seeds, then draw a picture and write one observation sentence in his or her plant journal. Afterward, the students can decorate the covers of their journals.
7. After all the observations are done and the plant journals are completed, help each student tape his or her bag of seeds into a spot in the sunny window.
8. Each day afterward, for five school days, (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Monday) have the students briefly observe their bags of seeds and report the daily findings in their plant journals.
9. After the second Monday, have each student transplant his or her seeds into a cup of soil. Remind the students that soil is a need for plants.
10. After the students have planted their seeds, allow the students to take the cups with the planted seeds home. This will help promote the home/school learning connection with all families. Send the plant letter home with students when they take their plants home, as well as the students’ “plant at home” journals for at-home observations.
11. Complete the activity and assess the students’ knowledge, give each student a sheet of blank white paper. Have each student fold the sheet of paper in half, then in half again. Now have the students unfold their papers. Ask the students, “How many squares do you have on your paper?” If folded correctly the students will have four squares — one square for each basic need of plants.
12. Instruct the students to draw or write the four basic needs of plants on their papers, one need in each square.

Day five: Nutrition activity

1. Introduce the food guide pyramid to the students, and explain the different areas. For details, visit the Inside the Pyramid page on the U.S. Department of Agriculture website.
2. Show the students a variety of foods: apple, peach, banana, grapes, tomatoes, cucumber, squash, tomato, and any other fruit or vegetable that can be accessed in your area. You will only need enough to give each student a small bite to sample.
3. Introduce the tasting party to the class by explaining to them that they will try some of the foods that they learned about during the plant unit.
4. Give each student a sheet with a list of the foods they will try during the tasting party. You can use the tasting party handout listed under materials needed above, but you may choose to adapt it for your needs. The sheet can also serve as a guide to the order in which you taste the food.
5. As you taste each fruit or vegetable, have the students place a check mark in the smiley face or frowning face column to indicate whether they like it or dislike it. Have them mark a V for vegetable or an F for fruit. This will help you assess their knowledge of the information they have been learning.
6. During the tasting party you can discuss with the students where each of these foods would fit into the food guide pyramid.

Assessment

• Most of the activities will allow for informal assessment done through observations, hands-on activities, and group work.
• The K-W-L chart will allow for informal assessment of the students’ learning.
• Formally assess the process by checking the students’ in-class and at-home plant journals.
• Use the four-square paper from day four to assess the students’ knowledge of basic plant needs — water, soil, sunshine, and air.

Modifications and alternative assessments

For students who have problems with writing (students with learning disabilities or English language learners) the assignment can be modified to allow them to only draw their observations in the plant journals.

Critical vocabulary

• plant
• seed
• bloom
• soil
• sunlight
• rain
• air
• fruit
• vegetable
• farm
• garden

Websites

• Quick and Easy Apple Butter recipe from the Cajun Cooking Recipes website — recommended for apple-butter-making activity
• Inside the Pyramid page on the U.S. Department of Agriculture website — recommended to help explain the food guide pyramid to students

Supplemental information

The following titles can be used to enhance students’ learning through reading:

• The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss
• Eating the Alphabet: Fruits and Vegetables from A to Z by Lois Ehlert
• Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehlert
• Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert