Teacher Resources
Whole Kids Foundation and American Heart Association Garden Lessons
35 Lesson Plans and Activities. The lessons are cross-curricular and support curriculum for Pre-K-5th grade. The National Content Standards addressed in each lesson, NGSS and CCSS.
http://www.heart.org/idc/groups/heart-public/@wcm/@fc/documents/downloadable/ucm_478049.pdf
School Garden Project
The School Garden Project has developed standards-based garden curriculum with lessons and activities aligned to NGSS and CCSS.
https://www.schoolgardenproject.org/resources/curriculum/
NGSS in the garden provides a series of lessons with a focus on exploration of life and earth science. Each lesson contains a variety of activities which can be combined and adapted for lessons that range from basic to complex.
STEM in the garden is a series of lessons, including a 10 lesson unit on Soil aimed at grades 3 to 5 and a 10 lesson unit on plant parts and function aimed at grades 2 to 4. Each unit strives to incorporate science, technology, engineering, and math through a variety of hands-on activities.
Growing Minds
Growing Minds focuses on Grades K to 2 but have also developed some lessons for grades 3 to 5. They also incorporate language arts into their garden lessons and activities.
https://growing-minds.org/lesson-plans-landing-page/
https://growing-minds.org/lesson-plans/
https://growing-minds.org/get-local-at-school/
https://growing-minds.org/this-week-in-the-garden/
Growing minds have an ever-growing searchable database of books which are perfect for teaching about gardening and food.
https://growing-minds.org/childrens-literature/
California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom
The California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to educating youth throughout California about the importance of agriculture in their daily lives. They have developed materials that are “teacher-tested and scientifically sound to enhance the educational experience of K-12 students”, including a series of lessons that are aligned to California State Standards
http://www.learnaboutag.org/resources/table.cfm
http://www.learnaboutag.org/resources/gardens.cfm
The also provide a National Agricultural Literacy Curriculum Matrix which is an online, searchable, and standards based curriculum map for K-12 teachers.
http://www.learnaboutag.org/matrix/index.cfm
Big Green
Big Green is a school garden non profit school garden organization established by Elon Musk’s younger brother Kimbal. Most of their curriculum is not available unless you are a big green school but some of their lessons are available using this link
https://biggreen.org/teaching-in-your-garden/classroom-resources/
Each lesson is aligned to NGSS and Common Core and is available for grades K to 2 and grades 3 to 5.
There is a lot of good “how to” information on their website including
How to manage a class in the garden
https://biggreen.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Big-Green-Teaching-in-the-Learning-Garden-FAQ.pdf
Talking points with students
https://biggreen.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Learning-Garden-Talking-Points.pdf
How to’s in a garden including video links
https://biggreen.org/teaching-in-your-garden/garden-skills-lessons/