Early Science  /  Plants  /  Hands-On  /  Activity

Design a Mini Class Garden

 

Plants
Hands-On

What materials can children use to plan and design a mini class garden? What do their plants need to grow?

Student holds a leaf outside. Teacher shows students how to measure a plant.

Plants grow indoors and outdoors.

Let’s design an indoor class garden! Choose a location.

 

Materials


  • Circle Time
  • Chart paper
  • Marker
  • Name labels
  • Small stones (for water drainage)
  • Plastic containers of various sizes, such as yogurt cups, soup cans, or plastic bottles with the tops cut off
  • 2–3 “planters,” such as copy paper box lids or plastic boxes with shallow sides
  • Guided Small Group
  • Bean seeds
  • Light source (sun or desk lamp with a full-spectrum bulb)
  • Soil
  • Optional: sprouted plants from earlier in the unit

Preparation

  1. Plan to introduce the Explore and Plan sections of the activity with the whole group in Circle Time, and the Create and Share sections in Guided Small Group.
  2. Find an area in the classroom where you can set up a class mini garden.
  3. Gather plant containers of various sizes (see Materials). Make sure there are a number of containers that are deep enough to allow for root growth.
  4. Add a few stones to the bottom of the containers so water will drain away from the roots.
  5. Collect box lids (planters) large enough to hold all the plant containers.
  6. Print out a name or face picture label for each child.
  7. Note: If children will be transferring plants from earlier in the unit, gather containers that are large enough to fit them. Otherwise, children will plant new seeds and need smaller containers.
  8. Tips for Teaching Engineering: Read through these tips to help support your young engineers as they become problem solvers:
  9. Acknowledge all ideas. Every idea is worth trying: That’s a great idea! Let’s try it!
  10. Allow children to fail or “get stuck.” This is when they get to figure out why their approach did not work and how they can revise it: Why do you think this design didn’t work? What can you do to change it? Let’s test it!
  11. Encourage children to share and build on one another’s ideas. This helps them become communicators and collaborators in solving problems: I like how you used (child’s) idea and added your own idea to it!
 

Directions: Lesson 5


Circle Time: Introduction
  1. EXPLORE. Review what children know about plants. Talk about places children have seen plants growing. Where have you seen a plant growing? Was it in the ground or in a container? Did it have space around it so it could grow?
  2. Identify the want or need. Tell children you want to plan an indoor garden together. Talk about why you want to have the garden inside instead of outside. Reasons might include:
    • Weather conditions may make it impossible to grow plants outdoors.
    • Animals might eat the plants outside.
    • You want the class to be able to track the plant’s growth, and you can’t always go outside.
  3. Brainstorm ideas. Talk about different factors to consider while planning the indoor class garden. Possible discussion ideas:
    • What containers will hold enough soil for the roots to grow down and spread out?
    • How will we make sure the plants have enough space to grow?
    • Where should the garden be located so the plants get the sunlight (or the special indoor light) they need to grow?
    • Where should the garden be located so the plants do not get damaged by children bumping into or stepping on them?
    • How will the plants get water?
  4. Draw attention to the available materials. Ask children to compare the plant containers and describe which will help plants grow. Prompt them to consider:
    • Which containers are a good size for replanting a plant? For planting seeds? Why?
    • Which containers hold more soil? Which containers allow roots to grow down deep?
    • Why might you need to move a sprouting plant to a large container?
  5. Have children choose a container for their plant and tape their name label on the outside.
  6. PLAN a solution. Children brainstorm garden design ideas. Prompt them to include in their design:
    • Which size planter box provides enough space between plants, so they don’t block sunlight from reaching each other or from crowding each other?
    • Does the garden have access to sunlight or a special lamp?
    • How can you prevent the garden from being damaged?
  7. Write down children’s ideas so they can revisit them in small groups when they create their garden.
Guided Small Group
  1. Have children plant their seeds or transfer existing plants to their containers.
  2. Display and revisit children’s list of garden design ideas from Circle Time. Possible discussion ideas:
    • What materials will we use for our garden?
    • Why do we need to put the plant containers into box lid planters?
    • Why do the plants need space between the containers?
  3. CREATE a mini garden. Children use the available materials and their brainstorming ideas to create the mini garden. Using the container each child chose during Circle Time,
    • Encourage children to allow sufficient space between the containers in the planter boxes. You may need to assist children as they organize their plants to ensure each plant is evenly spaced.
  4. SHARE and COMMUNICATE the final solution. After the mini garden is set up, have one or more children explain why they made their design decisions, including:
    • Plant container and light source (sun or lamp)
    • Container arrangement in the garden
    • Location of the garden and the light source
  5. Review and discuss the final design with children. Possible discussion ideas:
    • Do you think the final design of our mini garden is a good one? Why or why not?
    • Was there something that did not work that we needed to improve? How did we change it?

Length of Play

15 min.

Group Size
In the Schedule

 
Vocabulary

  • brainstorm
  • communicate
  • compare
  • describe
  • design
  • plan
  • plant (noun, verb)
  • root
  • soil
  • solution
  • space
 
Learning Goals

Science
  • Observe and describe plant parts and their functions.
  • Observe and describe what plants need to live and grow.
Engineering
  • Identify problems that relate to our everyday needs and wants.
  • Determine what materials are available to solve a problem.
  • Brainstorm possible solutions to a problem.
  • Design solutions to a problem.
  • Document and/or share solutions with others.