Mar 28, 2022

Stories Encourage Kids To Grow Their Own Food

Growing food is deliciously rewarding – and it can be a fun challenge. Gardening is an excellent way to explore STEM in your classrooms or backyards. (Life Science of how plants grow, engineering to build an irrigation system, math to plot out plants and technology to record data! Just for an example!) Learn about how gardens teach life lessons in this blog post.

But where to start?

Motivation! Cultivating curiosity in your young ones by reading a book about food and farming.

Of course, we suggest Feeding Minds Press titles like:

• Right This Very Minute
• I LOVE Strawberries
• The Prized Pumpkin (English & Spanish)

But here are other garden books we love:

• Planting a Garden in Room 6
• Miguel's Community Garden
• How to Grow a Monster
• Rooftop Garden
• Our School Garden
• First Peas to the Table

After you get students excited about gardening, check out your state’s extension (like Virginia's for example) or local master gardener websites to see if they have tips for what grows well in your climate.

Then find a space that works for you. An outside plot, a windowsill or a container are all good options. Did you know some people grow plants up?

Start small with one or two things. If you grow complementary plants like tomatoes and basil – you are on your way to having grown a whole salad!

Growing new foods is a great way to get students excited about eating them. Sylvia’s Spinach and Zora’s Zucchini from our friends at Readers to Eaters are great titles for picky eaters.

Finally, keep a journal – Like Jolie from “I Love Strawberries” to see how things are going and what works well for you.

Did your plant DIE? Don’t worry, it happens to all of us. Put on your critical thinking cap to try to discover what went wrong. Too much water? Not enough sun? Wrong soil? Check out the Prized Pumpkin learning module – in English or Spanish for a story about how to bounce back.

We hope to inspire you to grow your own food this season!

Teachers, if you want some tips on how to start a school garden you can check out this blog post!