A Reading Adventure Pack invites scholars to start gardening. Following a reading of two books—fiction and nonfiction—young green thumbs repurpose food containers to grow an herb garden in their kitchen, plant seeds in starter pots out...

Maintaining a garden is an ongoing responsibility. This resource follows a series of activities in a unit that resulted in the planting of a rain garden. What you will find here are general instructions for watering, weeding, pruning,...

Finally, the day has arrived for introducing plants into the rain garden. If you have been following the entire unit, this will serve as a helpful guide for planting day. If you have not been using the previous lessons in this unit with...

How big is that carrot? Why one hand span, of course. As an exercise in measurement, individuals trace their hand in their science journal and search the school garden for one object the same size as the span between their thumb and...

Young environment experts examine the different types of rocks. They create their own rock garden to keep throughout the school year. Although this lesson is written for the Alaskan landscape, a rock garden can be created in almost any...

Teach your class the descriptive characteristics of soil. Provide information about particle size and a flow chart for assessing texture. Soil scientists then analyze samples and hypothesize which would be the best type for a rain...

Crafting is fun, it increases eye-hand coordination, and it is a great way to accent any lesson. Celebrate Earth Day by creating scrap fabric flowers for a pop-stick flower garden. Children of all ages will love gluing, cutting, and...

A study guide for Native Gardens, a dramatic play, introduces theater lovers to a set of a neighbors and the problems they face. Discussion questions in the guide tackle themes of racism, ageism, and classism.

Most appropriate if you are applying the entire unit to build a rain garden at your school, this installment involves calculating the area that will drain into it. Your garden planners will need data from previous lessons, so this one...

As part of a unit, this lesson familiarizes youngsters with components of a rain garden. They speculate about the role of an assigned component in contributing to a rain garden, and ultimately, in the health of the local watershed. Each...

Add a touch of Dr. Seuss whimsy to your Earth Day celebration with six pages consisting of Earth-friendly, inspiring, and engaging activities designed to enhance the beauty of your school campus and showcase the famous story, The...

An appropriate way to celebrate and conclude the construction of a rain garden is to share it with the community. Small groups collaborate to design an outreach product such as a PowerPoint presentation, brochure, or poster, to draw...

Clever! Participants don square-foot cardboard shoes to mark out the rain garden plot that they have spent the last few weeks designing. In this way, they are practicing scale modeling as well! Note that this lesson is part of a unit,...

Pupils build rain gardens. For this community service lesson, students study the effectiveness of rain gardens in allowing water to run off. Pupils build a community rain garden at their school.

Introduce young chefs to nutritious eating with a cookbook that is divided into sections focusing on one of the five food groups. It includes lessons, activities, and recipes. How wholesome!

Gardeners are given an individual plant specimen from a bouquet of local rain garden plants. They group up by their plant type and then make observations together, name the plant, and introduce it to the rest of the class. You then share...

Soil scientists gain experience with an infiltrometer can to determine the infiltration rates at different locations on campus. If you are using the entire unit, the class has already analyzed water flow and soil types, so they should...

Elementary ecologists pretend to be migratory hummingbirds. They fly between wintering and nesting grounds, trying to reach a habitat haven. In a musical-chair fashion, some birds will miss out, and are removed from the game. To further...

What's in soil? Young scientists study the pH levels of soil from their school yard. They observe the land and area the soil came from to decide if location has anything to do with acidity level.

Young surveyors look for patterns in water flow around campus. Using a map of the school (that you will need to create), they mark the direction of the path of water. They also perform calculations for the volume that becomes runoff. The...

After a grand conversation about seeds, adaptation, and dispersal, scholars work collaboratively to examine seeds and record their findings on a four-column chart.  Small groups share their observations and further discuss seed...

Students study indigenous plants. They examine why they are special, why some might be threatened, by what forces (pollution, habitat destruction), and what else relies on the continued existence of these plants (insects, animals). They...

Young scientists learn what it takes for life on Earth to survive with this series of photosynthesis resources. Offering twelve different activities ranging from independent practice worksheets to in depth scientific...

Create a scaled model of our solar system in your classroom! Scholars work collaboratively to build paper mache planets and hang them in their proper position to showcase each planet's location in the solar system.