What should, or can, a teacher plant during the early days of school to support children’s adjustment to school and deepen their understanding of living organisms? The answer to this question depends on many variables, including whether your school is located close to or far away from the equator, how high above sea level it is, how much space you have, how much direct sunlight the space gets, and if water is available.
If you sprout seeds in containers in the classroom and in an outdoor garden, children can observe and measure the root and sprout growth up close, while getting a harvest from the outdoor garden later in the fall. Use a vegetable planting guide and recommended planting dates guide for your area, such as Publication 426-331 by Allen Straw of the Virginia Cooperative Extension to see what crop you can plant and harvest before a winter freeze.
I’m going to have the children plant bush green beans and lettuce, hoping we can harvest before a frost. We’ll also plant a few perennial plants that come back after the winter for more than one year to provide nectar sources for butterflies. To choose perennial plants for your flower garden, look on the US Department of Agriculture Plant Hardiness Zone Map to find out what zone you live in. The map uses the average annual extreme minimum temperatures from 1976-2005 to determine the zones. Once you know your zone, you can choose plants that are hardy throughout the year in your zone. (Look at the plant labels or descriptions in a gardening book.) The boundaries of these zones may have changed since your childhood and will continue to change in coming years as the climate changes.
Read Sid Perkins’ column in the June 30th, 2012 Science News on how observations made by citizen scientists track climate changes to their local environments at http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/341492/title/People__The_Science_Life
You can be part of a network of citizens who document temperature or other natural phenomena—see the Citizen Science Central’s list of projects. Project BudBurst is one such project, a network of people across the United States who monitor plants, including lilacs, as the seasons change.
By sprouting seeds, children are busy taking care of another living organism, and can help the seed survive by meeting its needs. Discussion and close observation can reveal the children’s needs—perhaps a longer rest time, a different color for their nametag, or a job to do to make them feel valued and part of the class.