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=**Class Vegetable Garden **=

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= Techno Teachers in Training (3TTT) = = = = Teacher Information = ====Teachers play a vital role in educating students about the environment. Growing a vegetable garden is a great way for students to learn about plant growth, sustainability and the life cycle of a plant. Growing a vegetable garden is not only vital in helping students develop an understanding of plant growth but can lead to further activities such as cooking with their garden produce and many more activities. This resource is aimed at Pre-primary (Foundation year) but can be adapted for other year levels. ====



Possible Lesson Layout
==== Day 1: what is a plant? today students will look at plants of various stages and focus on the life cycle of a plant. (provide a seed, and and about 3 or 4 plants at various stages and get students to put them in order and then students can draw the life cycle of a plant. (//Note: students can draw this life cycle and add it to their journal) you can display the "My vegetable garden progress journal" on the interactive whiteboard while explaining this to students. using real life plants gives children that concrete material and allows them to look, touch and observe what their plant may look like.//====

Resources:

 * Seeds (tomato seeds)
 * plants at various stages of growth (tomato if available)
 * My Vegetable garden progress - see attachment

[[file:My Vegetable garden progress journal.docx]]
(//Note: you will need to make copies of the second journal page as we have only provided one as an example)// //The purpose of the Journal is for students to observe the progress that their plant makes in terms of "life cycle" - seed-seedling etc. each student having their own journal gives them that feeling of accomplishment and something that they can be proud of and call their own.// //Students creating their own journals helps them in developing vital skills required for success throughout schooling including observing and these skills are addressed in the curriculum.//

Lesson content:
> The life cycle of a pumpkin
 * 1) ====As an introduction to plants, the teacher will ask what is a plant and students will brainstorm and then the teacher display the life cycle of a "pumpkin seed" video for students to watch on interactive white board.====
 * 1) Then with the real plants students will put these in what they think is the order of the life cycle of this seed
 * 2) Now students will draw the life cycle of the pumpkin seed and put this at the front of their journal.

==== Day 2: Today students will primarily be using the interactive white board to develop their knowledge of plants by putting a broken plant back together and growing their own virtual plant. this will help students learn the various parts of a plant and what a plant needs to grow.====

Resources:

 * ====Interactive whiteboard====
 * real life plant e.g. tomato plant

Lesson content:
> ==== Day 3: Today students will be put into groups of 3 or 4 depending on the size of the class and each group will be given a certain seed to grow e.g. tomato,pumpkin etc. once students are in groups they will plant their seeds in their little pots and then they will take a picture and draw their seed into their journal entry. ====
 * 1) recap on yesterday briefly (what is a plant and a plants life cycle)
 * 2) on the interactive whiteboard display the broken plant with "sparky the alien" and help sparky put the plant back together, .[|Help sparky put a broken plant back together]
 * 3) display "growing a plant and get students to water and care for this plant (//Note if the plant doesn't get enough water then it stops growing)// .[|grow your own virtual plant]

Resources:

 * Small pots (or plastic cups with a couple of holes in the bottom
 * Permanent marker (to write on each pot/cup seed name)
 * soil
 * small watering can
 * foam trays to sit their pots on (so water doesn't go everywhere in the classroom)

Lesson content:

 * 1) Select groups (can be displayed on interactive white board)
 * 2) give each group their specified seed
 * 3) get one person from each group to get a certain material for growing seed ( one pot, one puts in soil, one plants seed etc)
 * 4) place all trays in a sunny area (if possible)
 * 5) students will now complete their first journal entry ( you will need to explain this to them)

==== Day 4- 14- for the next ten days each day students will spend time watering their plant and observing it as it grows. once a week students ( on a tuesday morning students will photograph and take a journal entry about their plant for this week.) ====

Resources:

 * Watering can
 * My vegetable garden Progress Journal.
 * Digital camera
 * foam trays to sit their pots on (so water doesn't go everywhere in the classroom)

Lesson content

 * 1) Students will need to water their plants each day and ensure they are getting enough sunlight so they can grow to their full potential
 * 2) once a week students will need to take a journal entry on their plants progress (See day 1 for "My Vegetable gardens progress")

==== Day15- Today students will transplant their growing seedlings into the class vegetable garden. from here they will continue to observe and look after their plants as they continue to grow and produce ====

Resources:

 * Watering can
 * My vegetable garden Progress Journal.
 * Digital camera
 * class vegetable garden (an area designated for the students vegetable garden. e.g. raised garden bed)
 * labels - (to stick in the ground near each plant so you know what is where)
 * Gardening gloves

Lesson content

 * 1) Explain what is going to happen
 * 2) hand out gloves
 * 3) move out to class vegetable garden and plant away (//Note: depending on the class size i would maybe again delegate each student in the groups a task to complete)//
 * 4) once completed the gardening get each group to photograph their plant and complete their weekly entry into "My vegetable Garden Progress Journal".

==== Day16- End- Today students will water and observe their plant just as they were doing in days 4-14. Once a week students will take a journal entry of their plant. (//At the end of this learning experience students will have a journal which they will be proud of and can take home to keep.) Once this task is completed students will create a life cycle of a plant poster and these will be displayed around the classroom. (you can even take a class photo and place it in the school newsletter, this is something that students will be proud of)//====

Resources:

 * Watering can
 * My vegetable garden Progress Journal.
 * Digital camera
 * Gardening gloves

Lesson content

 * 1) Students will need to water their plants each day and observe their plants progress in the class vegetable garden.
 * 2) once a week students will need to take a journal entry on their plants progress (See Day 1 for "My Vegetable gardens progress")
 * 3) Students will now create a poster of the life cycle of a plant and show to the rest of the class what they have learnt about plants. (taking a class photo and displaying it in the school newsletter will give students a sense of achievement and they will feel very proud of what they have achieved.)



//Helpful websites with information, images, activities etc on....//
There are links to great activity ideas if your short of ideas for what to do in your classroom while your studying plants.[]
 * Who doesn't like to play on the interactive whiteboard, especially when you can match the flowers to their pair, plant and seed and help it grow and even put a broken plant back together. this is a great educational resource for students as its fun and they get to learn as they have fun with Sparky the Alien.[]
 * How do plants grow . the below website has some great activities that you can use in the classroom to help students develop their understanding of how plants grow.

More helpful websites for creating fun and innovative lessons....

 * Primary Treasure Chest- lots of great resources to do with plants,, posters to display around the room, sight words etc, loads of resources available for teachers to do with plants and something to do with everything that you could imagine in the classroom. http://www.primarytreasurechest.com/topics/gardening-and-growing/plants.html
 * The great plant escape! help Spud and Bud help Detective Leplant on his search, and along the way you will learn about plants and how important they are in our lives. lets help solve these plant mysteries http://urbanext.illinois.edu/gpe/gpe.html

(Note: for more resources and lesson ideas see the Resources page for more great creative lesson ideas and activities.)



Jr, C. (2012). Kids crafts and recipes from @http://www.craftjr.com/plant-life/ (Sourced on the 15/5/2012)
Sizemore, S. (2012). The Life Cycle of a Pumpkin from http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=134153 (Sourced on the 16/5/2012) Chest, P. T. (2010). Primary Treasure Chest. from http://www.primarytreasurechest.com/topics/gardening-and-growing/plants.html (Sourced on the 15/5/2012) Images from google images http://www.google.com.au/imghp?hl=en&tab=wi (Sourced on the 22/5/2012)