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Having a school garden is great for so many reasons; watching how plants grow and develop and students having the opportunity to get outside and get their hands all grubby can be a great source of fun!
Since the RHS set up their RHS Campaign for School Gardening in 2007, 12,000 schools and educational institutions have signed up, which proves just how popular school gardens are. What are the educational benefits of them though? Let’s take a little look…
Learn About Plants
Having a school garden means students are actively learning more about plants, including vegetables and fruit, and seeing how they develop and what conditions are needed to grow them.
Tells Us More About Nutrition
Although there are loads of scientific education benefits to having a school garden, nutrition is another big thing it helps with. Whilst students grow vegetables and fruits, they’re learning about these foods, which may improve their liking for them and health.
Innovation in Learning
The classroom is a great place to learn, but sometimes it can become a bit… ‘same-y’. With a school garden, teachers can get their students into the open air and learning, and a change of scenery may be a great way to improve their readiness to learn.
Writing Skills
With a school garden comes the possibility of recording gardening journals, and this in turn is a great way of improving writing.
Teamwork
It also teaches students about the benefits of working in a team and how you can work together to create something calm, bright and colourful for everyone to enjoy!
If you’re out and about in your school garden with your class, don’t forget you can use EducationCity’s plant and nutrition-related activities to support your learning. Here are some of our recommendations from our Science module for both Key Stage 1 and 2…
Plants
Topic Tool
Plant Parts – Identify the parts of a plant: roots, stem, leaves, fruit and flowers.
- England: Year 1 & 3
- Scotland: Early ***, First * & First **
- Wales: Year 1 & 2
- N. Ireland: P3
Plant Processes – Build a plant to explore and describe the processes it is able to go through.
- England: Year 2, 3 & 5
- Scotland: First **, First ***, Second *, Second ** & Second ***
- Wales: Year 3, 4, 5 & 6
- N. Ireland: P4, P5, P6 & P7
Learn Screens
Plant Functions – Explore the functions of the main parts of a plant.
- England: Year 3
- Scotland: Early ***
- Wales: Year 2
- N. Ireland: P3
Activity
Green Fingers – Name the parts of the flower and understand the different functions of each plant.
- England: Year 5
- Scotland: Second *
- Wales: Year 5
- N. Ireland: P6
Nutrition
Learn Screens
Nutrition Edition – Explore key vocabulary used when discussing animal nutrition.
- England: Year 3
- Scotland: First **
- Wales: Year 3
- N. Ireland: P4
Activity
Food and Glory – Recognise that you eat a lot of one type of food but not much of another.
- England: Year 2
- Scotland: Early ***
- Wales: Year 2
- N. Ireland: P2
Meal or No Meal – To consider the food groups needed for a healthy, balanced diet.
- England: Year 6
- Scotland: Second *
- Wales: Year 5
- N. Ireland: P6