Pollinator Garden Planting

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OBJECTIVE

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

How do we plant a pollinator garden?

How can we capture the experience of the garden in a poem?

MATERIALS NEEDED

Introduction:

Ask students: what do we already know about pollination? How have flowers adapted for animal pollinators? How have animals adapted for flowers? How does it benefit insects and plants?

Discuss how pollination can be scientific and also poetic. Read some example poems about pollination and flowers. Tell the students they will be planting flowers today and harvesting words for poems. Review what harvest means and that instead of harvesting food they are going to be harvesting observations, feelings and reactions to what they see in the garden. Go over the butterfly example on the worksheet.

Activity: 

Split the students into two groups one transplanting flowers first and one completing the Word Harvest Worksheet. Switch halfway through so each student can do both stations.

Wrap up: 

To end the lesson, have students share observations, reactions and feelings from the Word Harvest Worksheets. Tell the students that next time we meet they will use the words they harvested to write poems in the garden.