Champlin Brooklyn Park Academy Microgreens Project

I visited Champlin Brooklyn Park Academy on Wednesday to plant microgreens with the first grade class.  We had a blast!  They have a beautiful greenhouse with lots of projects getting started. When we arrived, some fourth grade students were doing their daily job watering all the seedlings.  

I met with three first grade classes, so about 60 students throughout the morning. We went through the steps of planting the microgreens while talking about what plants need to grow.  The students had very thoughtful answers.  We also talking about what the word "micro" means so that the student could figure out on their own what a microgreen was.  

For our microgreens, we planted black oil sunflower seeds. I was really impressed by how many students were able to guess what the kind of seed it was.

The first graders were really excited to get their hands dirty.  It was great to see how engaged they all were.  There wasn't a singe student who wasn't interested in the activity in some way.  They worked well in their groups and were proud to show us their finished flat of seeds.

The kids dirty hands show how hard they worked!

I learned a lot about what works with kids and am really excited to plan the next visit, when we will harvest the microgreens and talk about the different parts of a plant.  I think the most important thing that I learned is that kids LOVE playing with soil.  Next time, I want to give them as much time as possible to do that.   Also, the more people you have there to help, the better. I'm glad that Mary was able to come along and lend a hand.

 Overall, I think the day went well!  My objectives for the lesson were to help the kids learn about plant needs and provide teachers with a fun indoor gardening activity and I feel like I accomplished that.  We had a fun day and I look forward to our next visit!