Lettuce See What We Can Grow: Growing an Autumn Class Garden

My fifth graders learn about plants as part of their fall instruction, and I've decided to add something new this year--a fall garden. In Ohio, a garden like this needs to be started by the first week in September.  Our fall garden project has the following student-driven components:

• Preparing the soil (1 day)
• Planting the seeds (1 day)
• Maintaining adequate moisture (15 min.; once each day, if no rainfall)
• Observing growth (20 min.; once each week)
• Harvesting and Eating (30 min./harvest; several days throughout the fall)

Day 1: Preparing the Soil (45 minutes)
There are many ways to prepare a soil plot for fall planting. If no plot exists at your school, I recommend a small raised bed (three or four feet squared) for your first class garden. All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew is a good resource for this. (He also has a number of videos on You Tube.) The video below shows four different science classes working in table teams throughout the day to prepare the soil of an existing garden bed for planting.
Safety note: Notice that, other than the occasional exciting critter discovery, students are working out of arms reach from one another; only one or two table groups are working at a time while the remaining groups work on a seated activity away from the tool area.





Day 2: Planting the Seeds/Watering Begins (45 minutes) 
Materials: small paper cups, compost (or potting soil), seeds (Bloomsdale spinach, black-seeded simpson lettuce, radishes), and a hand watering container
In climates with a mix of the four seasons, there are only so many things you can plant in fall and still get a crop prior to the onset of cold weather. We'll be planting spinach, lettuce, and radishes. All grow well in cooler weather, harvest in two months or less, and grow relatively close to the ground. This makes them easy to cover in the event of an early frost. The video below shows the planting process being managed in a way that provides a structure for every student to participate and take ownership of the garden. Notes: 1) In the past I've planted a garden with one seed cup per table team (4 students). The entire garden (24 seed cups) planted by 100 students fit into a 3x3' space. 2) If you plant at least two seeds per cup, most seed cups will sprout. Plant a few extra for students/teams to adopt if their seedlings don't germinate.



Watering with a hand watering container (sprinkler nozzle on the end) begins on this day and continues daily, unless there is rainfall.  I do not complete daily watering with the whole class.  Some days I water during recess and invite interested students to join in.  Other days I water after students have gone for the day.



Day 3:  Beginning the Investigation (45 minutes) 
Click here to view the Lettuce See What We Can Grow! online student page used in the following investigation (completed as a group using a projection system). 
Questions  Once the garden is planted, we discuss the following questions that we are trying to answer:

• Is it possible to grow food this time of year?
  
• How long will it take for our seeds to germinate?
• How long will it take before we can harvest our food?

Think It Through.  Next, we construct a picture of the (basic) life cycle for seeding plants together and discuss the processes that allow a plant to mature from one stage to the next.  We discuss that all of our garden plants will be harvested at the vegetative stage. (They won't require the extra time needed to flower/produce seeds before they can be harvested since we will eat either the root or leaf, not the fruit/seed.)

Hypotheses  We wrap up the day's lesson by voting on possible hypotheses in a large group.  Each student's hypothesis is recorded on a group chart.

Days 3 to 7: Watering continues (15 minutes daily, if no rain)

Day 8:  Germination Observations/Watering (20 minutes)
Materials: science spirals, watering container
During the first eight days, soil moisture has been maintained by watering seedlings daily.  Before passing day 10, it is important for the whole class to check on the garden in order to accept/reject Hypothesis #1. See wiki page.  Students begin by finding their plants and recording observations with words, numbers, and pictures.  Next, we discuss the differences between the lettuce, spinach, and radish seedlings.  We also discuss the importance of gently watering seedlings so as not to wash them away before students water their seedlings.  Finally, we wrap-up the day's lesson by recording our findings as a group on the class Student Page. See Data and Observations for September 4th.



Days 9-14: Watering continues (15 min. daily, if no rain)

Day 15: Thinning and Observations (including seedling measurements)
Materials: science spiral, ruler, scissors
Now that the seedlings are well underway, it's time to thin out the plants.  Today students will remove all but the largest plant in their seed cup.  Some seedlings will be transplanted to the cups of students whose seeds did not germinate, and some will be left to return nutrients to the soil.  Students will measure the height of their seedlings to the nearest quarter inch, then average their seedling heights with those who are growing the same plant (radish, lettuce, or spinach).




Day 39: Our First Garden Party
Materials (whole class): Six pair of scissors, paper towel, sink area, one bottle of ranch dressing (with a squeeze spout to more easily dispense small amounts)
The last two weeks have produced more rain than average for this time of year, so watering has not been needed.  In fact, the area around the raised garden has been a bit of a moat, though the lettuce, spinach, and radish are high and dry and doing just fine.  I began covering the garden with row cover last week (beginning of October) when an early frost threatened.  It has also been too wet for 100 pairs of feet to garden, so we took advantage of the first entirely sunny (school) day in two weeks to have an early sampling of our produce.  Although the radishes are the tallest plants in the garden, they are still not quite ready.  However, everyone enjoyed either a leaf of lettuce or spinach.  Our procedure for the garden "party" is listed below.

1. Prior to walking to the garden, students wash hands or use hand sanitizer.
   
2. At the garden, six students at a time use scissors to clip ONE leaf from each of their plants. 
3. Back in the room, students rinse their lettuce leaves and place them on a paper towel on their desks.
4. Once students return to their desks and place their lettuce/spinach leaf on their paper towel, the teacher dispenses 1-2 droplets of ranch dressing onto each leaf.
   
5. Let the garden party begin! :)
   

Day 85: Final Harvest and Final Garden Party (November 23rd)
As we near the coming winter months, the fall frosts are growing more frequent.  I placed row cover on the lettuce in late October, though we have only had a handful of frosty mornings.  It has been a warmer than usual fall, but cool enough for slow growth of the lettuce and a delay in the usual bolting and/or bitter taste that usually comes after two months of growth in warming weather.  Ideally, I would have completed the final harvest around Halloween, but other curriculum demands and wet weather prevented this.  Fortunately, the garden has flourished with very little attention since the start of fall.  Today is the last day of school before fall teacher conferences and Thanksgiving break, so it turns out to be a great day for our final garden party.  I am very pleased with the results of our first fall garden, and students are already asking me what we are going to plant in the spring.  But that will need to keep for another day...