Writing and Journaling

Question: A garden journal is a great way to get my students to write daily. Do you have any other suggestions to inspire writing via the garden?

Answer: A garden journal is indeed an excellent forum to encourage students of any age to write every day or every week. Because the garden is in a constant state of change, it inspires observation, contemplation, and writing. The gardening process itself has many steps that require documentation. The journal allows for introduction of new vocabulary, composition, and handwriting practice.

Students can expand their writing beyond the garden journal by writing creative stories using the garden as the central theme, or writing garden poetry, limericks, haiku, and acrostics. Final writeups can detail the class's garden-related investigations and experiments. Plant histories might be researched and written before presentation to the class in an oral report. Plays based on the garden's theme might be written, practiced, and presented to the student body. A garden newsletter could be produced and distributed to other classes, parents, and the community. The students' ownership of the garden makes it something that they enjoy writing about.