On a beautiful sunny day, I hear cheerful little voices slowly beginning to approach the garden. Two small classes of kindergarten students from John Muir Elementary are coming to learn in person at the Koshland Community Garden. Our CommunityGrows garden educator, Ms. Cristina, greets the children with enthusiasm and explains the gardening lesson of the day. The students will be separated into two groups; group #1 will use gloves and shovels to dig and plant, while group #2 will use hand lenses to look for living things around the garden.
Group #1 walks with excitement towards the garden plot and starts to put on their gardening gloves and grab their hand shovels. They learn how to dig dirt and create medium size holes in order to lay the vegetable plants in the ground. Once they are finished, they pass around a watering can to water around the plants. Each group has 15 minutes. After that, they switch. Group #2 discovers cool bugs such as roly-polys, spiders, and bees. They’re amazed by all the living things they find with their hand lense as they walk through the garden. A teacher explains to the students the importance of bugs such as spiders. He goes on to tell the students that although spiders may look scary, they are great for getting rid of unwanted insects, like mosquitos.
This fun and easy activity can be tried at home in your own backyard or neighborhood park. Send us some photos to our email at info@communitygrows.org or tag us on Instagram with the cool things you discover!