Living Schoolyards Month Activity Guide (2016)
This free guide (PDF) has over forty hands-on activities for PreK-12th grade students and the public. Activities are succinctly & beautifully presented. Each one includes goals, materials, procedures, age guidelines and teaching tips useful photos on 1-2 pages. Overarching themes include: Art, Recreation, Health, Wildlife Habitat, Watershed Stewardship, Schoolyard Agriculture, Energy and Climate, Thoughtful Use of Materials, and Place-Based Understanding. Plant-centric activities include:
Photosynthesis Tag
Science game — Los Angeles Unified School District,
Office of Outdoor and Environmental Education, Los Angeles, CA
Plant Part Relay Race
Active game — Community Alliance with Family Farmers, Davis, CA
Steal the Native Plant
Plant identification game — Center for Land-Based Learning, Winters, CA
Plant a Native Hedgerow
Ecology / grounds improvement — Collaborative for High Performance Schools, Sacramento, CA
Garden-Based Learning Lesson: Interdependence
Science lesson / habitat — Berkeley Public School Gardening & Cooking Program, Berkeley, CA
Seed Saving with Children
Horticultural techniques — Grow Your Lunch, LLC, San Francisco, CA
Plant Root Explorations
Botany — Hidden Villa, Los Altos Hills, CA
Roots and Shoots
Botany — Full Option Science System (FOSS) Lawrence Hall of Science,
University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
Source: Various contributors to the Green Schoolyards America program
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