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Curriculum Connections An herb planting
offers countless opportunities for students
to think and act like scientists. Their observations and questions
should lead to fruitful investigations. Here are a few ideas for
getting started: Spicy Plant Parts - Provide or have students bring in a variety of dried herbs and spices. Challenge them to observe these and try to infer what part of the plant each ingredient comes from. Or bring in dried herbs and spices and the corresponding plants and seeds. Students can try to match the plants with their dried forms and seeds. Capture the Essence - Have students "observe" their garden-grown herb plants using their noses, and then challenge them to figure out the best way, given their resources, to extract the smell/flavor from a plant. You might want to provide a variety of materials to prompt students' thinking, such as a toaster oven, hot plate, frying pan, and crushing and cutting utensils. (They might also design a "smell test" to compare the abilities of different people to discriminate among herbs.) Test Herb Lore - Once students have researched some of the lore and legends surrounding herbs, they might want to design tests to see if the tales have validity! For instance, the question "Do cats really go wild over catnip?" might prompt students to grow the mint, then design a fair test to see if cats prefer it to other members of the mint family, such as peppermint, basil, or spearmint.
Scavenger Hunt - Consider developing or having students create a scavenger hunt for younger kids that focuses the hunters' attention on qualities of herbs. Here are some sample clues. Find an herb that . . . smells like a mint . . . might taste good in spaghetti . . . has square-shaped stems . . . might repel fleas. Adopt-an-Herb - Whether your students are raising herbs indoors, in containers outdoors, or in their schoolyard garden, they can each adopt an herb to plant, tend, and research. Students should use seed packet directions, catalogs, or other sources to learn how to plant and care for their herbs; make routine observations and drawings; research their herbs' histories, folklore, and medicinal and culinary uses; and find recipes that feature their subjects. That done, students might create individual books (or a class compilation) featuring the life stories of their subjects. Engage students in exploring how different people and cultures, past and present, have used herbs. Consider these suggestions:
Herbs in History - Have students research how people in a time period or culture they're studying (e.g., Pilgrims, pioneers, Native Americans, the Middle Ages, Victorian Era) used herbs for cooking, cosmetics, dyes, crafts, medicines, insect repellents, beverages, odor maskers, and so on. They might want to try re-creating some of the end-products. Herbal Sleuthing
- Invite students to become herbal sleuths, looking for evidence
of herbs in grocery stores, household products, pharmacies, and
so on, then categorizing the ways in which we use herbs today. Consider
experimenting with your own herbal product creations (see below). Here are some examples of the delights that can emerge from your herb garden. Web sites listed on the Resources page offer other advice. Fragrant sachets - These are small cloth bags filled with herbs and flowers that you can put in a drawer next to your clothes or hang in a closet to help make your clothes smell good. You can make bags with drawstrings so you can empty and refill them as the fragrance fades, or you can make little pillows by sewing together all of the edges of your sachet. For a strong, spicy fragrance, mix together dried leaves of basil, sage, lemon verbena, and thyme. Your students might use these as gifts or sell them to raise funds. Herb butter - Students can make this spread for bread or crackers by letting a stick of butter soften at room temperature, adding a tablespoon of fresh chopped herbs to it (with a bit of salt and pepper, perhaps), and mashing the ingredients together. Try individual herbs or mixtures, such as chives, parsley, and dill. Herb Vinegars
- Slowly heat one quart of white or white wine vinegar in an enamel
pan. (Don't boil it.) Add a handful of washed herb leaves and stems
to an empty bottle. After patting them dry, pour in warm vinegar and
store the bottle in a cool place. The flavored vinegar will be ready
to use in salad dressing or for cooking in four to six weeks.
Copyright© 2004
National Gardening Association |
Classroom Project Background
A
Colorful History Herb Products from the Gardening with Kids Store
Aromatic
History:
Guide for School Garden Entrepreneurs
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Finding the
Winners - Challenge students to experiment to test "the best"
herb or combinations for particular purposes. For instance, they
might search for the best spaghetti sauce or salad dressing combination,
or most enticing herb for fragrant bath oil. Require students to
back up their choices with data (gathered from classmates or families,
for instance) rather than just stating their own opinions. 
Family Favorites
- Ask students to interview family members to discover which herbs
they currently use for cooking and other uses, and which types were
traditionally used by their ancestors. As they learn about how herbs
are and have been used in different cultures' cuisines, the class
might want to cook an international meal. Create a class cookbook
of favorite herb recipes. (When you cook with fresh herbs, you'll
need to use three times the amount of dry herbs called for in the
recipe to get similar results.) 
