CURRICULUM DESIGN

Sample Curriculum
*Each Session runs for 45-60 minutes

Session 1

  • Farm Orientation & Site Tour
  • Make your own garden journals
  • Vocabulary: journal, zero waste, reusable, recyclable, observation, freeway, farm, respect, food forest, fruit trees, adaptation, collard greens, sunflower seeds, fava beans, squash, nasturtium, lady bugs
  • Question: What do you hope to learn at the farm during your time here this fall?

Session 2

  • Study and experience holding the four basic necessities of life – sun, soil, water, air
  • Prepare soil mix and sow seeds in flats to keep in greenhouse and observe growth
  • Vocabulary: sun, soil, water, air, compost, mulch, greenhouse, soil blocks, flats, seeds, seedlings, sow
  • Question: What are the four basic necessities of life? Why do we start seeds in the greenhouse?

Session 3

  • 5 senses hunt – hunt for textures, colors, odors, sounds then report back to group
  • Do nature rubbings or magic carpet, jar with items founds
  • Vocabulary: explore, hunt, investigate, observe, record, collect, report, senses, sight, smell, hear, taste, feel, texture, color, odor, sound
  • Question: How can you use your 5 senses to investigate on the farm? Can you use this other places?

Session 4

  • Worms! Talk about vermicomposting and how worms are helpers in the garden
  • Make temporary worm jars to observe how they live (follow up: write a story about the worms)
  • Vocabulary: worms, vermicompost, decomposer, vegetable and fruit scraps, newspaper, moist, aerate, black gold, red wigglers, mold, bacteria, micro-organisms
  • Question: How do worms help a garden grow?

Session 5

  • Check on worm jars and discuss findings...
  • Study the 6 plant parts and find each in the garden
  • Introduce guilds, companion planting and observe in the garden
  • Vocabulary: root, stem, leaf, flower, fruit, seed, guilds, companion planting, inter-planting, polyculture, monoculture, biodiversity, ecosystem
  • Question: What are the 6 parts of a plant? How can different plants help each other when planted together?

Session 6

  • Transplant seedlings from flats in greenhouse and learn how to prepare new home for plants
  • Closing Activity – each student shares favorite entry in his/her journal and/or experience at the farm.
  • Vocabulary: transplant, seedlings, compost, share, community, neighborhood, urban farming, agriculture, permaculture for kids
  • Question: What did you learn at the farm in the past 6 weeks? Do you think having a farm in the city is a good thing for the neighborhood? Why?
Photos by Melanie Hutchinson & John Howard, November 19, 2010