#14. Garden Museum @NetZeroLee

Last year, I was grateful to work with teachers to strengthen our outdoor education program.

The teachers welcomed outdoor projects into their curriculum with flexibility and care, adapting the ideas in ways that made sense to children. Their support in helping students connect new learning to what they already knew fostered deeper understanding and made our program meaningful, familiar, and exciting.

This year, my goal is to simplify the program while increasing its impact, making it easier to bring the garden program to more classes.

My vision is to create an environment where our kids find real joy and fulfillment in learning, inspiring them to keep exploring and learning more.

G4B, G5, and B4A learners turned our garden harvest into a “test kitchen,” experimenting with flavors to create dishes that were truly their own.

First, cooking requires strategic thinking grounded in science. Questions like these underlie cooking: "Which should we cook first, the carrots or the cabbage?" and "Why is the cabbage shrinking while sautéed?"

Instead of following one recipe, each learner made choices with a goal in mind—What do we want this to taste like?

In this activity, they customized their dishes by adding condiments and thoroughly thought about:

• Flavor direction: mild or bold, sweet or savory, fresh or rich

• Combinations: what to mix together or keep separate

• Amounts: adding a little at a time, tasting, then adjusting for balance

The learners chose their condiments from salt, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, crushed red pepper, and lemon & pepper seasoning salt.

What choices did learners make to customize their dishes?

Through tasting and smelling, learners saw how ingredients change and practiced observation, comparison, and strategic thinking through hands-on experience using their own senses.

The science topic, "Natural and Man-Made Resources," offers children an opportunity to connect scientific concepts to the real world and to view it from a different perspective.

Two weeks after the B2 learners built a see-through compost, the natural materials in it started darkening and breaking down, while the man-made materials remained the same. They noticed the differences and wondered why some things change while others don’t.

They added natural and man-made materials into the 3 sections of the see-through compost, predicting fast, slow, and no decomposition.

In the worm bin, vegetable scraps turned brown and slimy. The learners were curious about how worms break down natural materials and how long it would take.

Then they tried worm composting and built new layers of the worm bin. Will worms break down both food scraps and paper? Why or why not?

P2 learners explored natural and man-made materials in their classroom, throughout the school building, and outdoors. This activity also sparked conversations about the materials used in everyday objects.

Learners discussed what man-made items are made of and explored how plastic is produced, deepening their understanding of the origins of materials. A learner asked, "Why does liquid oil turn into solid plastic?"

They also hunted for materials around the school, categorizing them as natural or man-made and considering what they were made of.

What objects can you find at home or in your neighborhood? Are they natural or man-made? What materials are they made of?

These questions, grounded in the real world, give you a scientific perspective on what you see.

Why do BK learners create a tree model instead of only observing the tree? Because creating pushes them to notice details.

They learn the patterns in leaf colors and veins, then transform their observations into a model of what they see.

Through this project, learners deepen their observational skills and grow as confident, thoughtful drawers, turning looking into learning.

On December 5th

The learners will keep a close look at our real oak tree throughout the year and create a classroom model using paper leaves to show how it changes across seasons 🍂

This project helps them observe and record data through pictures and models, notice patterns and changes over time, and connect leaf changes to weather and seasons. They also identify the structures and basic needs of a living tree.

On December 17

GK learners noticed how much our oak leaves had changed in just a month. From comparing leaf colors to creating a leaf book, our kindergarteners are learning through science and art.

As leaves change, kids learn about the seasons. The BK and GK learners have been watching the oak tree since November 19.

Observing the oak tree with their friends and creating one thing together throughout the year will be a memorable experience.

Y4 learners created their own rulers to plant onion seedlings 1 inch deep and 5 inches apart.

As they worked, they asked thoughtful questions:

• Where do we start measuring?

• How do we make equal scales?

• How does this tool work in the garden?

Planting onions became a real-world opportunity to apply math through hands-on problem-solving, turning measurement into meaningful learning.

Before planting onions, learners shared their observations about the seedlings, sparking scientific thinking. What questions should we ask to lead them to further exploration?

Check out my new blog post, "Listening to Children Can Make You Surprised," about a realization I had while interacting with our learners.

Garden Gurus is a group of learners who love nature and volunteer to care for our school garden. Each morning, a rotating small team begins their day with hands-on garden work and nature-inspired creative activities.

These moments connecting with nature provide a positive start and foster responsibility, curiosity, and holistic development.

Our Garden Gurus also plan to host a fundraiser to support our garden. We will share the details with you soon!

Our school garden needs fall leaves for mulch and compost. You can drop off bags of fall leaves anytime at the garden or in the field outside the playground for easy access. Thank you so much for supporting our garden!

Thank you to the teachers for collaborating and being so flexible with outdoor learning!

In this newsletter, I have included the pictures taken by them.