Childrens Garden Club

I volunteered for the garden club at my sons school last fall, its K through 5th and about 50 students. To say the least it was hard to get started, that's a lot of kids. Generally only about 30 show up but still its desperately challenging to keep them all focused at the same time.


After talking with the other volunteers and a friend who runs a few other local garden clubs we have decided to split the ages next year. K-2nd one day and 3rd-5th another. And possibly have a lasso to pull them in, maybe two.

Being our first year we have learned a lot, but a few key things to keep in mind for a successful garden club are,

• Keep the ratio of adult to children low 5 to 1 sounds good to me if you are working with lots of kids
• Teaching the basics of gardening is enough. They love to get dirty! Pulling weeds is fun! And worms a really entertaining!
• Use snack time as a teaching tool, they are quiet and ready to listen. Talk about recycling your water bottles or bringing your own from home (I hope to encourage this next year). Eat from the garden, make home made butter and enjoy things at there simplest.

Yesterday we took the Garden Club to Dunbar Community Gardens. Mr Damian showed them baby chicks, bees and compost, they loved checking the temperature.


Their excitement is worth all the wildness.









Baby chicks

Bees

Very smart looking club

Hot compost