As this unusual school year comes to an end, encourage students and their families to continue to explore the nature around them with these fun online activities from our partner KidsGardening.

Since 1982, the KidsGardening organization has inspired children to play, learn and grow through gardening and offers educators and families garden grants and education resources.

Take a look at just a few of Schoolyard Gardens favorite KidsGardening activities that can be accomplished using items found around the house.

• Building a Terrarium  – Build a small habitat by reusing an old 2 liter bottle or glass container. Watch the movement of water through the precipitation, evaporation and condensation processes.

• Leaf and Flower Print – Chemical compounds create the pigments or colors you see in flowers and plants.  Chlorophyll is the green pigment and plays an important role in photosynthesis. Other colors might fight off pests or attract pollinators.  In this activity, students gather different colored plants  and create colorful prints by stamping out the plants pigments onto a white paper or fabric

• Painting with Soil – Soil comes in many different colors and textures.  Make beautiful art with paint made from soil!

This post concludes our Spring Blog Series, but we are excited to continue supporting our schools with our Schoolyard Garden blog Summer Edition.

Watch for helpful “How to Harvest your Vegetables” tutorials, Summer Schoolyard Gardens Spotlights, and delicious summer harvest recipes.

The Schoolyard Gardens team would like to thank all the schools that were able to plant a spring and summer garden and we look forward to gardening with everyone again this fall.

Happy Gardening!