We Need A Garden

Gardening and Bugs are two of the most exciting things to learn about in preschool!! They are also my absolute favorite topics to teach! These two go hand-in-hand!

My name is Jorie Morgan and I am the Director and Owner of Little Hearts Christian Academy. My inspiration for building gardening into my curriculum stems from some very basic lessons I learned at the beginning of my undergraduate year. When I started my educational walk at Colorado Christian University, I had to take a class that emphasized the importance of putting Jesus at the forefront of every decision I make. I had to read a book called Courage and Calling: Embrace Your God-Given Potential by Gordon T. Smith. My major take away from the book was that we have three major callings in our lives:

1. God calls us to him! "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." Exodus 20:3 KJV. The Bible is full of stories where God seeks to have meaningful relationships with people. God does want to have a relationship with us. He revealed himself in person to Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Isaiah and others. God is constantly wanting for us to engage with him! Smith says, “We are called to be Christians. This is the most fundamental and basic sense in which we must consider the notion of vocation: we have been called to love God and our neighbors; we have been called to live by faith, to trust and obey God.” When my students come to school, I want them to want to know God. I want them to feel him and see him working in their lives.

2. God calls us to tend to our blessings. Our families, homes, vehicles, relationships, jobs…everything we have is a blessing from God! When God gives us things we should take care of them so we can sustain and grow our blessings! I want students to be self-sufficient and know how to treat people, things and the world around us. I want them to seek to do things for God’s glory! “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.”  Colossians 3:23-24 KJV

3. God gives us a vocational calling. Our vocation is not just our daily job, but something God created us for. It’s our purpose; how God is going to use us to push his will forward. How do we know we are doing what God has called us to do? We will love what we are doing, we will be good at what we are doing, and time will fly by when we are doing what we are called to do. Like they say, “Time flies when you’re having fun!” Along with my calling to have a relationship with God and to do all things for his glory, God has put a love in my heart to create fun and engaging activities for children to learn from.

I also took a creative class at Colorado Christian University. This class had me pick any creative project I wanted to do and I had to document the process and reflect on where I could see God moving. I chose to make a garden on my once very tiny back porch. What I learned is that when I am doing something for God, the task means more to me. I care if he loves, likes, or even disapproves of what I am doing. I learned that I love gardening and in the creative process I could see that even though I had plans for what my garden would look like, God is the ultimate creator, and he wowed me with how beautiful the final results were. The garden was stunning.

The lessons I learned from those two classes have stayed with me through the years and have helped inspire me to add gardening to our curriculum. I want to take these concepts and help the children to learn about the world around them through fun, hands-on, age-appropriate and engaging lessons.  Children have natural curiosity and excitement to learn about the world around them. This is why I am excited to create a garden that the children at Little Hearts Christian Academy can explore every day.

There are several areas of interest that are included in our garden. These areas include the greenhouses, the picnic table, the raised garden beds, and ideas to tie-in pretend play to outside learning.

The Greenhouses

The children get to go into the greenhouse and watch their plants grow and water them. They can use spray bottles, watering cans, or the hose. They can feel the difference in the atmosphere as they go in and out. The children can compare the temperature inside and outside of the greenhouse. The grow tables are positioned lower, so the children have easy access to work. Some surprises they might find are frogs and lizards!

The Picnic Table

The picnic table is where we can make plans. We can draw maps of the garden; draw flowers and plants we want to grow. We can draw shapes, (example-the planters are ovals, the strawberry patch can be square, we are going to plant tulips in the rectangle by the fence, etc.) Making plans is a great way to enrich concept development and have opportunities for open-ended conversations, comparisons, making predictions, enriching language and vocabulary and critical thinking skills. This is also where we can plant our starter plants, learn to harvest seeds, explore bugs we have found, experiment using garden tools, and do our outdoor crafts.

The Raised Beds

The Kids get to transplant their starter seeds into the raised beds. They can also sow seeds directly into them. The beds get direct sun and some shade. The children get to choose how they want to water their plants. They can pick spray bottles, watering cans or the hose. The most exciting part of the raised beds is getting to watch their plants produce fruits, vegetables, and flowers. This opens up discussions about the life-cycle of the plant, how to harvest produce, colors, eating healthy, healthy habits, size and comparison, different ways to cook, reading recipes, life-cycles of insects like butterflies and lady bugs, animals, and so much more!

Pretend Play

Opening the garden up to pretend play helps children to use their cognitive abilities to imagine play scenarios. We have a pretend campfire, and the kids can make up their own campfire stories, we can make sunflower mazes, tunnels to run through using arches and plants, we put up all natural weaving boards and add toys that will encourage pretend play. When children pretend, they develop their language skills, their social skills, their ability to self-regulate, take turns, and cooperate with others. What a great way to make memories and have meaningful experiences.

Fredrich Frobel and Maria Montessori are two trail blazers in early childhood education. 

Frobel came up with the idea that children are like a garden. They need extra love and care the same way a garden does to grow and produce fruit. He is the one who came up with the term kindergarten, and he also created developmentally age-appropriate toys for young children called Frobel Gifts. Maria Montessori believed that young children have extremely absorbent minds and that early childhood is the most important time to let children explore the world around them through play so they will have the best understanding of it. She believes that there are sensitive times when children are curious about what they are learning and that is the time to encourage the child to learn. She also believes that the best way for children to learn is to learn from hands-on-experiences. (For example: If a child is going to learn how to clean, give them cleaning materials, if they are going to learn to set the table, give them dishes, etc.) Montessori toys are self-correcting and also age-appropriate.

For ME, my hope for the garden at Little Hearts Christian Academy is that it will have the same positive effects Frobel and Montessori created for their students. I pray that the children who play there will be engaged, will learn, and will have the best time of their lives. I pray they will feel the love of Jesus shining into them and learn to see Jesus moving in what they are doing.