I taught a Square Foot Gardening for Kids class at the public library on Saturday. It was a hit!
I took garden boxes and showed how to make the grid. I showed how to space seeds according to how big they were (in patterns). I explained that some plants like cool weather & some warm (sorted real veggies into 2 bins labeled with pictures). Some plants are tall and need to be on the north side so they don't shade other plants (put plant pictures on cards & made them tall, med, & short).
There were tables with whole, cut raw (in baggies), and cut cooked (in baggies) vegetables for the kids to match. I showed them how to make compost (using compost material in baggies, spoon, liquid measuring cup, etc (M.s = mix, mash, moisten, move). The children could do all those activities plus match veggies by color to the rainbox veggie pages. They could also match veggies to their boxes on the grid page.
We had 3X3 ft. butcher paper cut so they could make garden plans. They used vegetable stamps to indicate where the plants would be (16 green onions, 9 beans, 4 lettuce, 1 broccoli to a square, for example). I put out books showing vegetables cut into animal shapes and flowers.
Next they planted seeds in little pots (canteloupe seeds from a canteloupe (not a package)). The last activity was eating all the cut vegetables (raw & cooked). There were dips and also fruits they could grow in the garden (strawberries & canteloupe).
We got a lot of great feedback from parents who liked the hands on activities. It's a great time of year for gardening classes (and gardens :) ).
