My Little Lot

Activity Overview

Patterns in nature either hinder or help facilitate plant growth, and the success of a garden relies on finding a balance of those factors. Aspects like finding the right spot to grow, and deciding which plants grow in harmony near each other, impact how well a plant will grow- and all of that takes careful planning! Help your student fire up their green thumb with this gardening exercise!

What You Need

• One Little Lot

• Counting cubes

• Shoe box or shoe box lid

• Blank paper

• Markers

• Materials for planting: seeds, dirt, fertilizer, watering can and water

Steps

1. Read One Little Lot on Epic (consider doing the literacy activity first). While reading, count along with the text, and think about the steps that the community went through to plant their garden.

2. Use counting cubes to represent the plants and a shoe box (or the lid) to represent the plot or raised bed. You can also achieve this with a blank sheet of paper and markers to plan out how you would organize your seeds if you were planting your own garden. Use the guiding questions to think about the different ways that you could use the space if you had a gardening area.

3. If possible, begin planting your own seedlings, and plan for your own garden this spring!

Guiding Questions

• How will you choose your plants: plants you can eat, flowers you like, colors you could include, how much water they would need, or something else?

• How will you design your garden? How many rows will you make? How many plants will you put in each row?

• Can you make a pattern with your plants? Can you make the outline of any shapes with your plants?

• How would the design affect the way you would take care of those plants? How would the design affect the way the plants might grow? How would it affect the way you would harvest from those plants? How might this be impacted by the space you have available to plant?

Extensions

• Use colors to represent the different plants in your garden (If developmentally appropriate, add a key to your plan)

• Plant a garden according to the plan you create. Follow along and make observations as the plants grow and see if anything you planned for is helpful for your plants!

• Consider visiting a community garden or possibly joining one. If there isn’t one in your area, consider finding some space that your neighborhood would enjoy plants in (islands in roads, sidewalk planters etc.)

• Research further about how plants can help (or be preventative to) each other as they grow.