Teachers and school garden volunteers, are you looking for lesson plans to accompany your school garden program? Multiple agencies have created excellent lessons that are available for your use, are free and are available online. Check out the information below to see if any of these lessons fit your particular needs. All lessons are categorized by subject material.

MATH

Original Author: The Science Spot
Website: http://sciencespot.net/Pages/mathgarden.html  
Lesson Title: Interactive Math Garden
Age Appropriate: Elementary and middle school students
Brief Description: This website offers a garden plan for a garden dedicated to math lessons. It also shares a few simple lessons for math projects in the garden.

Original Author: Ag in the Classroom
Website: http://www.agintheclass.org/Portals/0/LessonFiles/barnyard_math.pdf  
Lesson Title: Barnyard Math
Age Appropriate: Elementary Students
Brief Description: A collection of mathematical worksheets for grades K-5

Original Author: KidGardening
Website: http://www.kidsgardening.org/node/12134  
Lesson Title: Exploring Math in the Garden
Age Appropriate: Elementary, Middle and High School
Brief Description: This website takes simple gardening activities such as planting seeds, or applying fertilizer and uses those activities to have students calculate math equations from figuring averages and percent to calculating algebra equations.

SCIENCE

Original Author: Learn NC
Website: http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/3214  
Lesson Title: Plant Power
Age Appropriate: Elementary Students
Brief Description: Students will plant their own seeds in potting soil and measure plant growth. Before the students' plants are visible above the soil, students will explore the parts and functions of classroom plants and compare growth among the classroom plants.

Original Author: ABC Teach
Website: http://www.abcteach.com/free/p/plants_handsonscience_seeds.pdf
Lesson Title: Parts of the Seed
Age Appropriate: Middle School Students
Brief Description: Students will examine the parts of the seed and then answer questions about plants.

Original Author: Arizona.edu
Website: http://biology.arizona.edu/sciconn/lessons2/Loredo/overview.htm  
Lesson Title: What’s Wrong With the Plants?
Age Appropriate: High School
Brief Description: Students will describe differences between plants that seem healthy and those that appear unhealthy. They will examine the plants and attempt to identify what is causing the unhealthy symptoms. As a result of their observations, students will propose a hypothesis and design an experiment to investigate the possible cause of the unhealthy plant.

Original Author: Internet 4 Classrooms
Website: http://urbanext.illinois.edu/gpe/index.cfm  
Lesson Title:
Age Appropriate: Elementary School
Brief Description: An interactive tool to help students learn about plant life.

LITERATURE

Original Author: CFAIC
Website: http://www.cfaitc.org/lessonplans/pdf/112.pdf
Lesson Title: What’s Bugging You?
Age Appropriate: Elementary/ Middle School
Brief Description: Through a variety of activities, students reinforce their skills of reading, writing, designing, investigating and problem-solving while learning about a current issue — pest management.

Original Author: CanTeach
Website: http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/songspoems22.html  
Lesson Title: Songs and Poems
Age Appropriate: Elementary school
Brief Description: A collection of songs and poems about seeds, plants, flowers, gardens and more.

Original Author: KNILT
Website: http://tccl.rit.albany.edu/knilt/index.php/Unit_3:_Garden-Based_English_Language_Arts_%26_Social_Studies_Lessons  
Lesson Title: Garden-Based Reading and Activity
Age Appropriate: Elementary and Middle School
Brief Description: This science lesson is launched with a reading aloud of the book "The Gardener" by Sarah Stewart, which takes place during the Great Depression. The story is narrated through a young girl's series of letters (literary) and is about how she plants flowers and recycles old paint cans and broken pots to brighten up her dreary situation.

Original Author: Cornell
Website: http://blogs.cornell.edu/garden/get-activities/signature-publications/  
Lesson Title: Garden Publications
Age Appropriate: Middle School and High School
Brief Description: A collection of downloadable publications regarding gardens.

Original Author: About.com
Website: http://childrensbooks.about.com/od/picturebooks/tp/garden.htm  
Lesson Title: Top 10 Gardening Books
Age Appropriate: Elementary and Middle School
Brief Description: A list of the top 10 children’s books about gardens and gardening.

HISTORY

Original Author: Action Bioscience
Website: http://www.actionbioscience.org/biodiversity/lessons/rinkerlessons.pdf  
Lesson Title: The Value of a Garden
Age Appropriate: High School
Brief Description: Students will understand the services different types of gardens provide to humans and be able to describe changes among factors in gardens using feedback loops.

Original Author: Learn NC
Website: http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/1627?ref=search  
Lesson Title: Victory Gardens
Age Appropriate: Middle School
Brief Description: Students will learn about gardening activities during World War II. Using primary source documents and photographs, students will discover how children their own age participated by growing Victory Gardens. They will design their own gardens and propaganda posters.

Original Author: Life Lab
Website: http://www.lifelab.org/wp-content/uploads/Westward_Expansion.pdf  
Lesson Title: Westward Expansion and Gardens
Age Appropriate: Middle School and High School
Brief Description: Students are introduced to fruits and vegetables that were available during the overland journey from the East Coast of the United States to the West in the 1800s. Students will understand that settlers moved along three different trails, each of which had its own challenges in geography, climate and supply acquisition.

NUTRITION/ PHYSICAL EDUCATION

Original Author: Farm to Desk
Website: http://farmtodesk.org/wiki/2nd/health/256  
Lesson Title: Shopping for a Balanced Meal
Age Appropriate: Elementary and Middle School
Brief Description: This activity will help students learn different food groups and choose components of a healthy meal.

Original Author: California Dept. of Education
Website: http://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/nu/he/nrttogrow.asp  
Lesson Title: Nutrition to Grow On
Age Appropriate: Elementary and Middle School
Brief Description: Nine lessons that teach children about nutrition by relating each lesson to a garden activity.

Original Author: School Garden Wizard
Website: http://www.schoolgardenwizard.org/wizard/pdf/create_guide.pdf  
Lesson Title: Create the Garden Guide
Age Appropriate: Elementary/Middle/High School
Brief Description: A guide to creating a sustainable school garden.