Subjects Taught in the Outdoor Classroom

Gardens complement the traditional curriculum by providing an opportunity for students to apply what they learn in the classroom. This is crucial because everyone, but most especially children, remember and understand better when they do things rather than just reading or hearing about them.

Mathematics
Children use math as a powerful planning tool in the garden. They calculate how many tomato plants should go in each bed, how far apart they should be, and how many pounds of produce they might expect from such a planting.

Reading, Writing and Speaking
A garden is a lot to talk about! It’s also a lot to read about, and write about. The garden provides exciting topics for oral presentations, informal debates on what to plant, and independent research papers. Students can also keep garden journals or connect with the community by interviewing local landscapers, chefs, botanists, immigrants, or garden club members on what a garden means to them. A garden can even be the opening topic of an oral tradition project with the student’s grandparents.

Social Studies
A garden makes textbooks come alive. Students can make a meaningful connection with Southern history by planting collards, peanuts, cotton, okra, or sugarcane. Plants like jalapeño peppers, bok choi, and Asian varieties of familiar vegetables can provide a tangible introduction to other cultures. Students can experience democracy firsthand as they collectively decide on what, where, and when to plant, as well as how to delegate duties and distribute the harvest.

Science
Students observing their garden can see the dynamic interaction of plants, insects and small wildlife, weather, soil, and energy over a long period of time. The dynamic exchanges of nature cannot be understood in a single field trip to the nature center; it can only be understood through an extended period of interaction and observation. In the garden, students can watch the world around them change throughout the year. It can be a laboratory where students learn to ask questions and seek answers through their own research and experiments. Such a laboratory is priceless.

Life Skills
Students must be responsible towards the plants that are depending on them, and they must work together to accomplish their goals. Students learn to resolve conflicts and reach a consensus when making decisions concerning the garden. The school garden is a space where children learn about interpersonal skills, organization and management, making commitments, and respecting opinions.

A school garden provides a wealth of opportunities for learning. It is an outdoor extension of the classroom, where traditional material takes on new meaning as students make connections between textbooks and the real world.