Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom
school garden week
School Garden Week is an exciting, NEW celebration designed to highlight the incredible impact of school gardens across the state. It's an opportunity to celebrate the learning, discovery, food production, and community-building that takes place in school gardens and to recognize the hard work of students, teachers, and community members who make these gardens possible.
Celebrate throughout the week by engaging with suggested daily activities and by planting the 2025 School Garden Week vegetable of the year, Carrots!
Monday
Show You Care-ot!
Celebrate school gardens as places of environmental awareness.
- Facilitate a lesson plan or activity focused on soil, water, environmental science, or wildlife
- Insect Scavenger Hunt (Grades 1-4) | Jeffers Foundation
- Water Cycle Dance (Grades 3-5) | Jeffers Foundations
- Keeping Soil in Its Place (Grades 3-5)| Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom
- Learn, Protect, and Promote Water! (Grades 6-8) | Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom
- Fertilizers and the Environment (Grades 9-12) | Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom
- The Social and Environmental Impacts of Food Waste (Grades 9-12) | Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom
- Do a trash cleanup in the school garden or surrounding areas
- Prep the garden beds for planting by weeding, laying compost, etc.
- Observe insects/wildlife in the garden
Tuesday
The Garden Keeps Me Grounded
Celebrate gardens as spaces to support student mental health, mindfulness, and balanced lifestyles.
- Do an age appropriate guided meditation in the garden
- Do a relaxing activity in the garden like reading, drawing, or painting
- Play a game in the garden to release pent up energy!
- Yoga/stretching
Wednesday
Bring Learning to Life
Celebrate gardens as tools to teach core subjects like reading, writing, science, and math.
- Facilitate a lesson plan related to the garden or garden produce
- Picking Plant Parts (Grades K-1) | Jeffers Foundation
- How Does Your Garden Grow? (Grades K-2) | Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom
- Soil Types by Texture (Grades 3-5) | Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom
- What? No Soil? (Grades 6 - 8) | Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom
- Plant Soil Interactions (Grades 9-12) | Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom
- Search results… Garden | Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom
- Read a garden themed story in the garden or indoors
- Worm Makes a Sandwich by Brianne Farley (Ages 3-7 - A sweetly humorous picture book about composting, told from the point of view of a worm.)
- A Gardener's Alphabet – HarperCollins (Best for ages 4-7 - From A-Z, the garden is depicted with spare words and striking graphics. This elementary book reinforces the letters of the alphabet and gardening simultaneously.)
- Harlem Grown: How One Big Idea Transformed a Neighborhood by Tony Hillery (Best for ages 4-8 - Harlem Grown tells the inspiring true story of how one man made a big difference in a neighborhood. After seeing how restless they were and their lack of healthy food options, Tony Hillery invited students from an underfunded school to turn a vacant lot into a beautiful and functional farm.)
- Write a story or poem inspired by the garden
Thursday
Dig In!
Celebrate school gardens as places to improve student nutrition, expand student palettes, and understand where food comes from. Build excitement around foods that the garden will provide in the coming months.
- Serve a meal featuring MN grown items
- Eat early spring vegetables harvested from the garden
- Have a classroom taste test featuring different carrot varieties or other vegetables that will be grown in the garden
- Create a classroom cook book featuring recipes shared by students and families. Recipes can feature carrots or other foods grown in the school garden
Friday
Tap Into Your Roots
Celebrate gardens as places of cultural connection.
- Create a classroom cook book featuring recipes shared by students and families. Recipes can feature carrots or other foods grown in the school garden
- Use the garden to practice foreign or indigenous languages
- The Ugly Vegetables – Grace Lin (Book for ages 4-8 which includes chinese pronunciation of vegetable names and vegetable soup recipe)
- Explore gardening and food through the lens of many different cultures
All Week Long
Sow Together, Grow Together
Close out School Garden Week with some hands on garden time. Start your seeds on their garden journey with help from students!
- Have a planting party with the 2025 School Garden Week featured vegetable - carrots!
- Plant any seeds or transplants that are ready for the garden
- Plant seeds in individual pots for students to take home
Other activity ideas:
- Create crafts/art using items found in the garden
- Tour a garden space
- Do a scavenger hunt
- Practice weed and/or plant ID
- Create garden signs or artwork to be displayed in the garden
- Repurpose egg cartons, food containers, etc. as planting pots