I taught Ashley’s preschool class!

One day this month I volunteered at Ashley’s preschool to do a lesson on Gardening and Vegetables. I called it the “Vegetables are Good for Me” lesson. I’ve never taught preschoolers or kids in a classroom setting before, so I made sure to have the whole thing planned out, and rehearsed in front of Ashley, Mike and anyone else that would listen.

I brought in soil samples, potting soil, planting containers, tomato plants, nasturtium seeds, and a giant bowl of fresh veggies for all to try (along with some ranch dip). I taught the kids about how plants grow, that they are living things like us and need air, sun, water, food, and space to grow. We checked out different soil samples (sand, clay, compost), and then headed outside to plan tomatoes in planters for everyone to take home.



After the plants were planted and watered, we headed back inside to talk about different vegetables. I brought in carrots with green, celery, peppers, sugar snap peas, asparagus, grape tomatoes, cucumbers and radishes. Everyone got to say what their favorite vegetable is, and then we sang the “Vegetables are Good for Me Song” that I found online that goes to the tune of “Old MacDonald Had a Farm”.

The words went:
Vegetables are good for me, E-I-E-I-O
And so I eat them happily, E-I-E-I-O.
With a carrot, carrot here, and a carrot, carrot there,
Here carrot, There carrot, Everywhere carrot, carrot.
Vegetables are good for me, E-I-E-I-O

And then we repeated the song with everyone’s favorite vegetable! The kids really liked it!
After this, it was snack time. The student teachers cut up the vegetables that I brought in for the kids to try with the dip. You could tell who eats veggies at home and who doesn’t. Only a few of the kids tried stuff, and I’m proud to say that Ashley cleared her plate (minus the Asparagus, which I ate for her).



Afterwards, the kids made me a giant thank you card with pictures that they took from the day. It was really cool! I plan on doing this again for Ashley’s class next year.