Our School Garden! is a fictional story about how young Michael, new to the city and the school, experiences the garden through the changing seasons of the school year. He discovers not just how vegetables grow but how a community can grow from a garden. The book, written in verse, also features sidebars on many aspects of school gardening and a resource page.   Author Rick Swann (rickswann.com) is la former school librarian in Seattle: “Being in a garden is like reading a good book: you’re never sure what is on the next page, but you can’t wait to get there and find out.”

Artist Christy Hale has illustrated many award-winning books, including Elizabeti’s Doll, winner of the Ezra Jack Keats Award, and its two sequels. “The stone soup of books about school gardening…” --School Library Journal “Our School Garden! draws upon the best parts of what a school garden can be–a place to spark curiosity, explore, work hard, laugh, make friends and deepen academic learning.” —Kyle Cornforth, Director, Edible Schoolyard Berkeley “From educational opportunities to building community and friendships, this picture book introduces the rewards of school gardens...” —Booklist  Before  Reading  Have  you  ever  gone  somewhere  where  you  didn’t  know  anyone?  What  do  you  think  it  would  feel  like  to  be  a  new  student  at  a  school?  What  would  make  it  easier  for  you  to  feel  welcome  and  to  make  friends  if  you  were  new  at  a  school?      After  Reading  How  did  the  school  garden  help  Michael  become  part  of  the  school  community?  What  did  you  learn  about  gardening  from  reading  this  book?    What  do  you  think  you  would  like  best  if  you  had  a  school  garden?  

Taste  Tests    In  Scavenger  Hunt  Michael  has  to  pick  his  favorite  green  from  chard,  collards,  lettuce,  arugula,  mustard  and  kale.  Which  would  be  your  favorite?  Purchase  these  greens  at  the  store  or  substitute  if  you  can’t  find  them  all  (or  grow  them  in  your  school  garden!),  wash  them  well  and  cut  them  up  into  small  pieces  so  that  every  student  can  sample  them.  Have  students  fill  out  the  chart.  Afterwards  you  can  graph  the  class  results.      

 Kind  of  green  

 Rate  them  1  (like  the  most)  to  6  (like  the  least)  after  tasting  

them    

 Collards  

 

 Lettuce  

 

 Arugula  

 

 Chard  

 

 Mustard  

 

 Kale  

 

What  plant  parts  do  you  eat?    Read  The  Enormous  Carrot  and  also  Tops  and  Bottoms  by  Janet  Stevens.  See  how  many  edible  plants  your  class  can  name  for  each  part  of  the  plant  listed  below.  Some  plants  might  be  listed  in  more  than  one  category!    

Seeds        Fruits        Flowers        Leaves        Stems        Roots  

Recipe  Math    The  recipe  in  School  Garden  Stone  Soup  serves  25  to  30  people.  Most  cookbooks  serve  4  to  6  people.  Get  a  recipe  book  out  of  your  library.  Some  of  my  favorite  recipe  books  for  kids  are  by  Mollie  Katzen:  Salad  People,  Honest  Pretzels,  and  Pretend  Soup,  but  any  cookbook  will  do.  Write  down  the  list  of  ingredients  and  note  how  many  people  it  is  supposed  to  serve.  Can  you  double  it  to  serve  twice  as  many?  Can  you  triple  it?  How  much  of  each  ingredient  would  you  need  to  serve  25  to  30?              

Harvest  Days    The  sidebar  for  Harvest  Day  mentions  several  harvest  festivals:  Thanksgiving,  Sukkoth,  the  Chinese  Moon  Festival,  and  Pongal.  There  are  many  others.  Go  to  your  school  library  and  research  one  of  these  harvest  festivals  or  a  different  one  from  another  part  of  the  world.  In  your  research  try  to  answer  these  questions:  When  and  where  does  this  festival  take  place?  How  old  is  this  festival?  What  special  foods  and  other  rituals  are  connected  to  this  festival?  How  does  it  bring  the  community  together?              

Nature  Journaling    

One  of  my  favorite  garden  activities  is  to  write  down  what  I  do  or  see  in  the  garden  in  a  journal.  You  can  make  a  blank  journal  just  by  folding  several  papers  in  half  and  sewing  or  stapling  them  in  the  center.  It  looks  great  decorated  with  leaf  prints  and  pictures  of  the  butterflies  and  other  animals  you  might  see  in  a  garden.  I  note  the  date  I  visit  the  garden  and  then  write  in  what  I  did  there  that  visit.  You  can  keep  a  nature  journal  for  visits  to  your  backyard,  a  local  park  or  anywhere  else  that  there’s  a  patch  of  green!          

Food  Drive  In  Homonym:  One  Word,  Many  Meanings  Michael  writes  about  taking  food  from  the  school  garden  to  the  local  food  bank.  My  school  supplies  the  local  food  bank  with  vegetables  we  grow  in  our  school  garden,  but  your  school  can  also  organize  a  food  drive  for  your  local  food  bank.  It’s  easy  and  fun.  Weigh  the  food  or  count  the  number  of  items  you  collect  and  make  a  giant  bar  graph  somewhere  at  school  where  you  keep  track  of  your  progress.  Just  make  sure  to  check  with  the  food  bank  before  you  start  so  you  know  what  kinds  of  food  they  need.                

Make  a  Poster!    

During  World  War  I  and  World  War  II  the  United  States  government  made  posters  that  encouraged  people  to  grow  their  own  food  so  that  farmed  food  could  be  sent  to  help  the  troops  fighting  overseas  and  to  supply  food  to  citizens  in  countries  that  couldn’t  grow  enough  food  because  the  war  was  being  fought  there.  There  are  lots  of  old  posters  to  look  at  online.  Just  search  for  “Victory  Garden  posters.”    Each  poster  has  a  clear,  short  message  and  a  picture  that  supports  it.  Why  would  you  encourage  gardening  now?  What  other  messages  would  you  want  people  to  see  in  order  to  help  improve  your  school,  community  or  the  world?  See  if  you  can  come  up  with  a  positive  message  that  encourages  people  to  improve  their  community  and  add  a  colorful  graphic  to  it.  Decorate  the  halls  of  your  school!                

Food  Riddles  Michael’s  Garden  Riddles  showed  that  he  had  looked  closely  at  vegetables  and  figured  out  some  of  the  traits  that  made  them  unique.  Take  a  fruit  or  vegetable  that  you  know  pretty  well  and  see  if  you  can  find  something  about  it  that  only  that  vegetable  has.  Now  make  the  vegetable  tell  what  that  trait  is:  I  am….  Or  I  have…  You  now  have  a  riddle!      

Lift-­‐the-­‐Flap  Worm  Book    In  Compost  we  learn  how  worms  help  nature  recycle  by  helping  turn  decaying  plants  into  soil.  Earthworms  are  amazing  creatures.  There  are  several  good  kids  books  (Yucky  Worms  by  Vivian  French  is  one)  about  worms  and  some  fun  worm  web  sites  for  kids,  too.  For  this  book  you’ll  need  4  facts  about  earthworms  that  you  find  really  interesting.  Read  one  of  the  worm  books  or  check  out  one  of  the  web  sites  about  worms  and  write  down  your  facts.  Then  follow  the  diagrams  below  to  put  your  worm  book  together.    

   

     

   

     

After  cutting  the  flaps  and  folding  them  to  make  doors,  glue  the  two  halves  of  the  folded  paper  together  avoiding  getting  glue  behind  the  flaps  that  you  will  want  to  be  able  to  open  and  close.  Write  your  four  facts  on  the  blank  paper  behind  the  flaps.  Last,  push  the  middle  fold  outward  and  the  two  quarter  folds  inward  so  that  you  end  up  with  a  book  that  when  closed  is  the  size  of  one  of  the  folds.  Decorate  and  title  the  front  cover.  If  you  want  you  can  write  about  yourself  on  the  back  cover.                

Concrete  Poem    These  are  also  called  shape  poems,  which  describes  them  perfectly:  they  are  poems  written  in  the  shape  of  the  subject  of  the  poem,  like  Spring  Plant  Sale  is  written  in  the  shape  of  a  flower  pot  holding  a  seedling—what  is  sold  at  a  school  garden  spring  plant  sale.  To  do  a  concrete  poem,  you  describe  an  object  using  poetic  language,  then  arrange  the  lines  in  the  shape  of  what  you  are  describing.      

Cooperation  and  Companions    In  Three  Sisters  we  learn  about  companion  planting—different  species  of  plants  that  when  planted  together  help  each  other  grow.  There  are  animals  that  cooperate  and  help  each  other  as  well.  It’s  called  cooperation  when  it’s  animals  of  the  same  species,  like  humans.  It’s  called  mutualism  when  it’s  animals  of  different  species  helping  each  other.  A  children’s  book  about  these  animal  pairs  is  Weird  Friends:  unlikely  allies  in  the  animal  kingdom  by  Jose  Aruego  and  Ariane  Dewey.  An  example  of  this  is  sea  anemones  and  clownfish.  The  poisonous  stingers  of  the  sea  anemone  protect  the  clownfish  from  enemies,  but  the  clownfish  protects  the  sea  anemones  from  butterfly  fish  that  would  eat  them.  Why  is  it  helpful  to  have  companions?  Either  write  an  essay  about  the  benefits  of  having  companions  or  write  a  short  report  about  animals  that  help  each  other  in  the  wild  (mutualism)  or  plants  that  help  each  other  grow  (companion  planting).