PERMACULTURE lesson plans for dome-school children & guides

1. The tour of a PC site - goals to identify, touch & learn many species of plants growing alive herenow.

METHOD - Guided group tour, guides will pick fresh leaves of varied plants growing on site. We will then gather kids together for the tour, explain it & hand out leaves, that kids don’t know now, to ID the tree or bushes. We WALK in group around the land to find the plants with those leaves growing now & discuss what we all know about that species, perhaps pick a fruit or flower, if abundant to share smell, & eat later. During & after discussion, we are open to kids new ideas, curiosity & needs in the tour & afterworks, sharing about any part of it. After tour we’ll then share foods & flowers.

Any kids who’d like to do some gardening now will be guided then or later.

2. Starting a garden, plot or pots - goals: to experience & learn all aspects

needed for growing a plan METHOD - guided group process to:

1. Walk or ride to nearby forest to gather soil for planting in.

2. Bring the soil back in pots, boxses & buckets to the site for planting

3. Put soil into pots or plots to plant seeds

4. Have meeting with all interested in gardening to decide:

a. where we would like to plant & grow,

b. what plants we aim to grow & why

c. where to get seeds or starts to plant.

d. design the area to grow plants in

e. who has growing skills & will supervise the gardening=take responsibililty for it

f. any other gardening projects: compost, fertilizer, starts, shade, etc.

5. Plant seeds by design on our newly collected soil

6. Label & water the seeds, perhaps put up protection.

7. Gather other seeds to plant now or later?

SOIL SURVEY - goal to examine dirt contents they/we dig up for creatures, plants & any minerals. TOOLS needed: a box/bag/bucket for each pair & 1-2 digging tools/pair

1. We walk into the forest, to meet in a central area in the woods, with containers to collect in.

2. We explain the game & ask them to choose a partner to do it with.

3. Kids then WALK around the woods in pairs, to dig small holes, away from bushes & trees, the kids find a site to dig a small hole by agreement.

2.Then teams collect a sample of each different thing in that holes soil, placed into a BAG or box to bring back.

3. We then call them back in 10-15 mins, to bring their findings, which is brot back to the whole group.

4. We sit in a circle, scan feelings & each pair in turn presents its diggings to the group to identify them, open to any feedback about the game.

5. Optional - They may return those things to their hole now after the circle sharing. They may do something creative with their findings.

We also seek kids feelings after the game & any further nature games they’d like to play or fears in them.