Square Foot Garden
COLLECTION
PRIMARY ELEMENTARY | SCIENCE & MATH
Square Foot Garden
Students will review how plants grow and what plants need to grow through kinesthetic modeling. An optional experiment is included to view the effect of plant spacing. Finally, students create square foot gardens, reviewing math concepts of fractions and measuring length.
Concepts: Plant Needs | Fractions | Length
Essential Questions
- What do plants needs to grow and thrive?
- How can we plant our seeds with enough space for each to get what they need?
Standards Addressed
Focus
- S1L1a. Students will identify the basic needs of a plant: air, water, light, nutrients.
- MCC1G3. Students will partition circles and rectangles into two and four equal shares, describe the shares using the words halves, fourths, and quarters, and use the phrases half of, fourth of, quarter of. Describe the whole as two of, or four of the shares. Understand that decomposing into more equal shares creates smaller shares.
- MCC1MD2. Students will express the length of an object as a whole number of length units, by laying multiple copies of a shorter object (the length unit) end to end; understand that the length measurement of an object is the number of same-size length units that span it with no gaps or overlaps.
Review
- S1L1b. Students will ask questions to compare and contrast the basic needs of plants (air, water, light, and nutrients) and animals (air, water, food, and shelter).
- S1L1c. Students will identify the parts of a plant: root, stem, leaf, and flower.
Recommended Resources
Online
- http://www.backyardplanter.com/squarefoot.html
- Square Foot Garden Spacing Table — http://www.mysquarefootgarden.net/plant-spacing/
- Square Foot Garden Planting Guide (illustrated table with plants and spacing info) – http://refreshingthehome.com/square-foot-planting-guide
- Square Foot Gardening Data Table and Planting Season Chart in One –http://www.thelegacypodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/chart%20for%20square%20foot%20gardening.pdf
- Cut-apart Square Foot Gardening Chart for Planning Entire Garden Layout – http://plantandplate.com/p-downloads/PlantandPlate-SFG-planner.pdf
Educators
- Square Foot Gardening with Kids by Mel Bartholomew
Children’s Literature
- Water, Weed and Wait by Edith Hope Fine & Angela Demos Halpin
- The Dandelion Seed by Joseph Anthony
- In a Nutshell by Joseph Anthony