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 they came from? 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 we picked or brot to exchange.

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

2. Starting a garden, plot or pots - goals: to experience & learn how to choose, design & prepare space needed for organic gardening - Have a guided group process meeting to:

1. Walk or ride to nearby forest to gather soil/seedstarts for

replanting in the garden space.

2. Bring them & soil back in pots, bags, boxes & buckets to the site for replanting

3. Put soil/plants into pots or plots, & plant seeds

For group gardening, meet with volunteer gardeners 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.

* Plant seeds by design in our newly collected soil/area.

*. Label & water the seedstarts, perhaps put up protection.

*. 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

3. Kids then gently WALK around the woods in pairs, to dig

small holes, away from bushes & trees, they agee on a site to

dig a small hole together, watching for different things in it

2.Then teams collect a sample of each different thing in that

hole 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 & ask each pair in turn

presents its diggings to the group to identify them, open to any

feedback about it, notice emoitions, fears, needs, ???s, stress

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.