Materials
- Garden tools necessary for jobs
- Respect in the Garden Visual Aid
8th Grade Respect in the Garden Review
Summary:
In this eighth-grade garden class, students review how the 4B’s (Be Safe, Be Respectful, Be Responsible, and Be an Ally) can be applied in the garden and break into groups to work in the garden on different tasks. The time students spend working in the garden functions as hands-on learning to reinforce concepts they’ve studied in the kitchen, garden, and traditional classrooms.
Student Learning Goals & Objectives:
After this lesson, students will be able to:
- Explain the behavioral expectations in the garden using information on the 4B’s poster as a guide.
- Demonstrate an increased ability to work independently using the Edible Schoolyard tools, techniques, and concepts.
- Explain the concepts of compost, harvest, cultivation, and propagation.
- Discuss in detail events and phenomena that regularly occur in the garden ecosystem.
Assessments:
During this lesson, students will:
- Review the behavioral expectations in the garden using the 4B’s poster.
- Discuss how teamwork, unity, and confidence can be developed in the garden.
- Partake in garden work that focuses on compost, harvest, cultivation, or propagation.
- Use observation and awareness to explore, investigate and be inquisitive learners in the garden.
Materials & Prep:
BEFORE YOU BEGIN
- Create the Job Board
Procedure Steps:
FULL GROUP, 7-12 MINUTES
1
AT THE OPENING CIRCLE
Welcome students back to the garden. Review rituals and routines.
- Welcome students to the Ramada and introduce the Job Board.
- Usually, there are four jobs, or four jobs and one lab, or one to three stations for students to rotate between.
- Have each teacher explain further about the job they will be leading.
- Introduce the Closing Circle activity so that students are prepared upon returning to circle.
- Review the Respect in the Garden poster with students.
- Divide the class into four groups for garden jobs. We typically break the class into groups of six to eight students who focus on one job. One group of students should prepare the tasting for Closing Circle.
SMALL GROUPS, 40-60 MINUTES
2
GARDEN WORK ROTATION
Check in with students and review their garden job at the job site.
- To begin, ask each student to answer a check-in question. Check-in questions should be provocative and fun and may not have anything to do with gardening. These questions can relate to the lesson or theme of the day
- Break down the steps for the garden job and have students identify necessary tools before going to the toolshed.
- Work together on your garden job with students.
- Give students short breaks for chicken time and foraging.
FULL GROUP, 10-15 MINUTES
3
AT THE CLOSING CIRCLE
Lead a fun activity that helps sum up the class. Games and tastings are popular.
- For a tasting:
- Servers pass a tray with the tasting around the Ramada at Closing Circle.
- Students each take one piece. They must wait until everyone has been served to taste.
- Encourage them to use their other senses to investigate the food until then.
- One group prepares the tasting during the garden work rotation.
- After tasting, each student shares their name and draws on their five senses to create a simile about the tasting.
- Example: My name is ______ and my apple was sweet like honey.
Download Lesson Materials
Vocabulary:
- Job Board
- Ramada
- Opening Circle
- Closing Circle
Academic Standards
Common Core State Standards
English Language Arts and Literacy, Grade 8
RST.8.3
Follow precisely a multistep procedure when carrying out experiments, taking measurements, or performing technical tasks.
SL.8.1
Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher- led) with diverse partners on grade 8 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.
Edible Schoolyard Standards
In the Garden Classroom, Grade 8
Tools
1.1
Identify, choose, use, and care for a wide variety of tools and equipment independently.
Contributors:
All lessons at the Edible Schoolyard Berkeley are developed in collaboration with the teachers and staff of the Edible Schoolyard and Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School.
