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Patterns through the Seasons

Elementary, Middle

Description

This unit/module is designed as a curriculum resource for teachers who want to use a school food garden as an "outdoor classroom" where students can experience hands-on learning in many areas of the curriculum. This unit will provide year round learning activities related to growing and maintaining a school food garden, with many related learning outcomes relevant to science, social studies and health for a wide range of age groups. Each learning activity follows a similar structure which includes title, grade level suitability, introduction, materials, procedure and extensions.

General Assessment

What skills does this resource explicitly teach?

This resource explicitly teaches the following skills:

  • observation and identification of plants
  • planting, nurturing and harvesting plants
  • using plants to maintain a healthy body
  • using plants to decrease erosion, pollution, carbon emissions etc.

Strengths

This resource has many strengths. It is:

  • up-to-date
  • thorough, both for the teacher and the student
  • easily accessible on the internet
  • clear in its delineation of many of the curricula connections
  • authentic and provides many activities that are extensions to the actual gardening activities, such as a research project on all the places our apples come from, creating a "greenhouse" in a bottle, gaining appreciation for heirloom plants, composting, etc.

Weaknesses

The weaknesses in this resource are not abundant but the following can be seen possible issues:

  • there are very few assessment tools included in the resource.
  • the resource is extremely lengthy which makes it unwieldy when working with only a specific group of students.

Relevant Curriculum Units

The following tool will allow you to explore the relevant curriculum matches for this resource. To start, select a province listed below.

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  • Alberta
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    • Kindergarten
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      • Science
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        • Earth Systems: Understandings of the living world, Earth, and space are deepened by investigating natural systems and their interactions.
    • Grade 1
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      • Physical Education & Health
        • Step 4Relevant matches
        • Healthy Eating: A lifetime of optimal well-being and physical wellness is supported by prioritizing nutrition and healthy eating.
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        • Earth Systems: Understandings of the living world, Earth, and space are deepened by investigating natural systems and their interactions.
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        • Healthy Eating: A lifetime of optimal well-being and physical wellness is supported by prioritizing nutrition and healthy eating
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        • Earth Systems: Understandings of the living world, Earth, and space are deepened by investigating natural systems and their interactions.
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      • Physical Education & Health
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        • Healthy Eating: A lifetime of optimal well-being and physical wellness is supported by prioritizing nutrition and healthy eating
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        • Earth Systems: Understandings of the living world, Earth, and space are deepened by investigating natural systems and their interactions
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        • Healthy Eating: A lifetime of optimal well-being and physical wellness is supported by prioritizing nutrition and healthy eating
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        • Earth Systems: Understandings of the living world, Earth, and space are deepened through investigating natural systems and their interactions.
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        • Healthy Eating: A lifetime of optimal well-being and physical wellness is supported by prioritizing nutrition and healthy eating
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  • British Columbia
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    • Kindergarten
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      • Science
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        • Science: Plants and animals have observable features
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        • Science 3: Living things are diverse, can be grouped, and interact in their ecosystems
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        • Science 4: All living things sense and respond to their environment
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        • Physical and Health Education: Healthy choices influence our physical, emotional, and mental well-being
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        • Life Science
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        • My Environment
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        • Growth and Changes in Plants
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        • Soils in the Environment
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        • Habitat and Communities
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        • Rocks, Minerals, and Erosion
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        • Maintaining a Healthy Body
  • New Brunswick
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        • Explore Your World: Play and Playfulness
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        • Explore Your World: Play and Playfulness
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        • Our Local Environment : Scientific Literacy
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        • Properties and Uses of Earth Materials: Scientific Literacy
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        • Plant Growth & Changes
  • Northwest Territories
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        • Science: Plants and animals have observable features
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        • Science 3:Plants and Animals are diverse, can be grouped, and interact in their ecosystems
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        • Science 4: All living things sense and respond to their environment
  • Nova Scotia
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        • Primary Science: Living Things
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        • Science 3: Plants
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        • Life Systems: Growth and Changes in Plants
  • Ontario
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        • People and Environments: The Elements of the Local Community
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        • Exploring the World Using Our Senses
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        • Plant Growth & Changes
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  • Saskatchewan
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        • Needs & Characteristics of Living Things
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      • Health Education
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        • Discovering Connections Between Self and Wellness: Action Planning
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        • Discovering Connections Between Self and Wellness: Understanding,Skills and Confidence
    • Grade 3
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      • Science
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        • Plant Growth and Changes
  • Yukon Territory
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    • Kindergarten
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      • Science
        • Step 4Relevant matches
        • Science: Plants and animals have observable features
    • Grade 3
      • Step 3Select a subject
      • Science
        • Step 4Relevant matches
        • Science 3: Living things are diverse, can be grouped, and interact in their ecosystems
    • Grade 4
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      • Science
        • Step 4Relevant matches
        • Science 4: All living things sense and respond to their environment
    • Grade 6
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      • Physical Education & Health
        • Step 4Relevant matches
        • Physical and Health Education: Healthy choices influence our physical, emotional, and mental well-being
    • Grade 7
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      • Physical Education & Health
        • Step 4Relevant matches
        • Physical and Health Education: Healthy choices influence our physical, emotional, and mental well-being

Themes Addressed

Food & Agriculture (2)

  • Local Food
  • Organic Farming

Land Use & Natural Resources (2)

  • Habitat Restoration
  • Planting Native Species

Sustainability Education Principles

Principle Rating Explanation
Consideration of Alternative Perspectives Very Good

The purpose of this resource is to help teachers make the best possible use of school food gardens, helping to make this important resource into a learning garden for the benefit of students, staff and the school community.

Consideration of Alternative Perspectives:
  • Satisfactory: absence of bias towards any one point of view
  • Good: students consider different points of view regarding issues, problems discussed
  • Very good: based on the consideration of different views, students form opinions and  take an informed position
Multiple Dimensions of Problems & Solutions Very Good

The resource activities addresses all three dimensions. It strongly focuses on environmental learning through seasonal cycles, gardening, and local food systems. The social dimension is also present through collaborative, place-based learning and shared exploration of food and community connections. The economic dimension is included,through general concepts such as comparing local and imported food.

Multiple Dimensions of Problems & Solutions:

Effectively addresses the environmental, economic and social dimensions of the issue(s) being explored.

  • Satisfactory: resource supports the examination of  these dimensions
  • Good:  resource explicitly examines the interplay of these dimensions
  • Very Good:  a systems-thinking approach is encouraged to examine these three dimensions
Respects Complexity Good

The resource shows some complexity by connecting seasonal change, gardening, and food systems to real-world experiences in a place-based way.

Respects Complexity:

The complexity of the problems/issues being discussed is respected.

Acting on Learning Very Good

The learning is action-oriented through hands-on, place-based activities involving gardening, growing food, and caring for a school or community garden. Students are actively maintaining a living system and engaging with sustainable food practices.

Acting on Learning:

Learning moves from understanding  issues  to working towards positive change — in personal lifestyle, in school, in the community,  or for the planet

  • Satisfactory: action opportunities are included as extensions 
  • Good: action opportunities are core components of the resource
  • Very Good: action opportunities for students are well supported and intended to result in observable, positive change
Values Education Good

Students keep a garden journal which allows them to reflect on their  gardening experiences.

Values Education:

Students are explicitly provided with opportunities to identify, clarify and express their own beliefs/values.

Empathy & Respect for Humans Poor/Not considered

Not considered in this resource.

Empathy & Respect for Humans: Empathy and respect are fostered for diverse groups of humans (including different genders, ethnic groups, sexual preferences, etc.).
Personal Affinity with Earth Very Good

Students learn about the principles of organic gardening, the threats to native pollinators and the importance of eating food grown close to home

Personal Affinity with Earth:

Encourages a personal affinity with -the natural world.  

  • Satisfactory: connection is made to the natural world
  • Good: fosters appreciation/concern for the natural world
  • Very Good: fosters stewardship though practical and respectful experiences out-of-doors 
Locally-Focused Learning Very Good

The garden activity is place-based, hands-on learning in a school or community garden setting where students observe and work with seasonal changes in their immediate environment. It encourages students to connect directly with local growing conditions, weather patterns, and food production, often using their own school grounds as the learning site.

Locally-Focused Learning:

Includes learning experiences that take advantage of issues/elements within the local community. 

  • Satisfactory: learning is made relevant to the lives of the learners
  • Good: learning is made relevant and has a local focus
  • Very Good: learning is made relevant, local and takes place ‘outside’ , in the community 
Past, Present & Future Good

This unit contains information regarding heirloom plants. It provides an interesting way in which students are able to appreciate how plants use to be preserved (through seeds, etc.) in the past. It also discusses how we are able to use this information to make better choices for seeds in relation to where they come from in the present and how to maintain them into the future.

Past, Present & Future: Promotes an understanding of the past, a sense of the present, and a positive vision for the future.

Pedagogical Approaches

Principle Rating Explanation
Open-Ended Instruction Very Good

The resource encourages student inquiry, observation, and exploration in outdoor, hands-on activities, especially through gardening and noticing seasonal patterns. Students often generate their own questions, make observations, and learn through experience rather than following a single fixed answer.

Open-Ended Instruction :

Lessons are structured so that multiple/complex answers are possible; students are not steered toward one 'right' answer.

Integrated Learning Very Good

This gardening activity touches on multiple learning outcomes. The resource list learning outcomes to be used as a starting point, leaving the teacher the flexibility to adapt activities to meet the specific learning needs of the students.

Integrated Learning:

Learning brings together content and skills  from more than one  subject area

  • Satisfactory: content from a number of different  subject areas is readily identifiable
  • Good:  resource is appropriate for use in more than one subject area
  • Very Good:  the lines between subjects are blurred 
Inquiry Learning Very Good

The resource supports inquiry-based learning by encouraging students to ask questions and explore answers through hands-on experiences in the garden. Instead of being given all the information, students observe changes, make predictions, and investigate topics like plant growth, soil, and seasonal patterns.

Inquiry Learning:

Learning is directed by questions, problems, or challenges that students work to address.   

  • Satisfactory: Students are provided with questions/problems to solve and some direction on how to arrive at solutions.
  • Good: students, assisted by the teacher clarify the question(s) to ask and the process to follow to arrive at solutions.  Sometimes referred to as Guided Inquiry
  • Very Good:  students generate the questions and assume much of the responsibility for how to solve them.  . Sometimes referred to as self-directed learning.

 

Differentiated Instruction Very Good

The range of activities suggested in this resource is diverse in terms of the learning needs of the students as well as different activities throughout the four seasons of the year.

Differentiated Instruction:

Activities address a range of student learning styles, abilities and readiness.

  • Satisfactory:  includes a variety of instructional approaches
  • Good: addresses  the needs of visual, auditory &  kinesthetic learners
  • Very Good: also includes strategies for learners with difficulties
Experiential Learning Very Good

The resource uses experiential learning by turning the school garden into a hands-on classroom. Students learn by doing, planting, observing, and caring for plants throughout the seasons instead of just reading about them. This helps them understand how nature works in a real and meaningful way. Through these activities, students build skills, make connections to the environment, and develop a sense of responsibility for the land.

Experiential Learning:

Authentic learning experiences are provided

  • Satisfactory: learning takes place through ‘hands-on’ experience or simulation
  • Good: learning involves direct experience in a ‘real world context’
  • Very good: learning involves ‘real world experiences’ taking place’ beyond the school walls.
Cooperative Learning Good

Students often work in pairs or small groups to plant, observe, measure, and record changes in the garden over time. They also share observations, discuss seasonal patterns, and collaborate during inquiry activities and class discussions.

Cooperative Learning:

Group and cooperative learning strategies are a priority.

  • Satisfactory:  students work in groups
  • Good: cooperative learning skills are explicitly taught and practiced
  • Very Good: cooperative learning skills are explicitly taught, practiced and assessed
Assessment & Evaluation Good

The journal writing task can be used as an assessment tool.

Assessment & Evaluation: Tools are provided that help students and teachers to capture formative and summative information about students' learning and performance. These tools may include reflection questions, checklists, rubrics, etc.
Peer Teaching Good

Students share observations, explain what they notice in the garden, or discuss seasonal changes with classmates.

Peer Teaching:

Provides opportunities for students to actively present their knowledge and skills to peers and/or act as teachers and mentors.

  • Satisfactory: incidental teaching that arises from cooperative learning, presentations, etc.
  • Good or Very Good: an opportunity is intentionally created to empower students to teach other students/community members. The audience is somehow reliant on the students' teaching (students are not simply ‘presenting')
Case Studies Good

In the introduction, the resource does include brief examples of successful school gardens and their positive impacts on communities. These function like informal case studies, short, descriptive examples, showing how school garden projects can lead to benefits such as improved student engagement, stronger community connections, and increased environmental awareness.

Case Studies:

Relevant case studies are included.  Case studies are thorough descriptions of real events from real situations that students use to explore  concepts in an authentic context.

Locus of Control Very Good

Many of the activities conclude with a list of suggested extension activities that are
intended to allow students to dig deeper into each topic, extending the learning .

Locus of Control: Meaningful opportunities are provided for students to choose elements of program content, the medium in which they wish to work, and/or to go deeper into a chosen issue.

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