By Kimberly Kooger
We enjoyed some much-needed, light fun in our virtual Good Food for Thought farm to school workshop last Wednesday, which was all about indoor gardening activities you can do with children, especially during the winter. We started with a mindful moment, in which we considered what we would like to cultivate in our students over the next few months. Answers to this prompt were varied, thoughtful, and inspiring, including the desire to cultivate “trust”, “a sense of empowerment”, “curiosity”, “impermanence”, “good caretakers”, “consistency and seeing things through”, and many others.
Teacher and farm to school extraordinaire, Jenna Mobley led us through a brief overview of a seed’s basic needs with a catchy song to go along, as well as what is possible to direct-seed outdoors when it’s cold. Then she took us on a deeper dive into practical and innovative ways you can start seeds indoors, as well as other gardening explorations you can do with kids inside, connecting all of these ideas to Georgia education standards and real, practical lessons.
We ended the workshop with comments about what indoor gardening activities folks are excited to try over the next couple of months with their students, and we gave away googly eyes and seed starting mix to one of the “most spirited” participants. Some takeaways in case you missed it:
You can start seeds in almost anything, as long as it has the ability to drain excess water, which means you don’t have to go out and buy a bunch of new stuff! We even learned how to make a simple seed starting pot with an empty toilet paper roll.
Just with the simple activity of starting seeds inside, you can teach students about nurturing living things and responsibility, math, and science, and even instill in them a sense of hope for the future.
When it’s cold outside, in addition to starting seedlings, there are many fun and creative garden prep tasks you can do inside in anticipation of spring planting, as well as garden-themed center activities.
Check out some of these great ideas in the below webinar recording.
You can sign up for upcoming Good Food for Thought sessions at gfft.georgiaorganics.org/virtual-events.
Kimberly Koogler is the Farm to School Coordinator at Georgia Organics. To learn more about Georgia Organics, visit www.georgiaorganics.org and follow us on Instagram @GeorgiaOrganics, Twitter @GeorgiaOrganics, and at www.Facebook.com/GeorgiaOrganics.