Garden Features/Tools

Students Tune into a Music Garden

Submitted by sarahp on Fri, 07/16/2010 - 22:31

Exploring Found Sounds and Natural Rhythms

Five years ago, Helen Krofchick’s music students in Lugoff, SC, could be found tapping on old cans and rubbing sticks. Why? Inspired by a visiting artist and video clips of a group called STOMP*, the K-5 classes tried using “found” objects, including things from the environment, to create and perform unique sounds and rhythms. After loads of inside practice, they wondered what their inventive instruments would sound like if they played them in the schoolyard.

Make Your Own Hummingbird Feeder

Submitted by sarahp on Thu, 07/15/2010 - 03:07

Overview: Based on what they know about hummingbirds, students will design and create their own feeder using everyday materials.

Subject Areas: science, visual arts, math

Key Concepts: physical adaptations

Skills: problem solving, creative thinking, teamwork/cooperative learning, artistic expression, observation, investigation

Location: indoors and outdoors

School Gardens are for Everyone

Submitted by editor on Tue, 03/16/2010 - 14:27

Creating Accessible School Gardens and Garden Activities

Do you remember watching butterflies floating through the garden when you were a child, and your amazement at their skill and grace?

Designing a Youth Garden

Submitted by editor on Mon, 03/15/2010 - 15:48

Creating a Sustainable Site Plan

Prehistoric Plants

Create a Garden Fit for a Dinosaur!

Right Side Box:

Dinosaur Dimensions

Lizards weren't the only things that grew to huge sizes during the Mesozoic Era -- some ancient horsetails were 30 feet tall! Even today, the cones of some cycads, which emerged during the Jurassic Period, can reach three feet in length and 95 pounds!

A museum diorama shows both plant and animal elements of the dinosaur age.

Garden Games

Submitted by editor on Mon, 03/15/2010 - 10:45

Kids Learn at Play

By:

Sarah Pounders and Barbara Richardson

National educational policy is focused on helping students achieve success in their academic careers, but some experts believe that we've forgotten the importance of play to children's mental, physical, and social development. In fact, play is the basis of the development of critical thinking skills.

Pondering Plant Coverups

Submitted by editor on Fri, 03/12/2010 - 11:51

Strrrrretching the Growing Season.

For many school gardeners, the season is all too short. In much of the country, just as the danger of spring frost is over and gardens are beginning to thrive, school lets out for the year. On the other end, fall frosts limit the time students can explore their garden oasis. In warmer climes, intense heat and drought are limiting factors.

Growing UP (and around, and down...)

Submitted by editor on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 13:12

Exploring Plant Growth with Garden Structures

One characteristic that distinguishes plants from animals is mobility. But just because plants don't walk, fly, or swim doesn't mean they don't move! Keen garden observers see that, in addition to stretching their stems and leaves upward and outward, sunflowers turn to face the sun, pea tendrils curl around stakes to keep vines erect, and morning glory stems wrap themselves snake-like around the uprights of a trellis.

2006 Mantis Award Winners

Submitted by admin on Wed, 02/24/2010 - 15:16

Changing the World One Garden at a Time

The National Gardening Association and Mantis partner annually to select dedicated youth and community gardens for the Mantis Award. Applications are welcomed from all nonprofit groups and award recipients receive their own Mantis tiller/cultivator. In 2006 Mantis generously awarded 25 garden programs. Here are inspiring stories from a few of these deserving programs.

Reducing, Recycling, and Re-using in a School Garden

Submitted by admin on Tue, 02/23/2010 - 16:22

School gardening is naturally an activity that lends itself to reducing, recycling, and re-using resources. In any garden the first goal needs to be to reduce inputs. Next, we should recycle, especially by composting as much plant material as possible. Finally, we should strive to find ways to reuse items that would otherwise be discarded.