So, I am going to be helping my farm friend with another kids class on herbs. This one will be for 8 to 10 year olds. As many of them have probably read Harry Potter, I am going to mention Mandrake/American Mayapple (and Professor Sprout and stuff) to try to get them excited about herbs. I will also talk about Chamomile and how Peter Rabbit drinks some Chamomile tea to calm down after being chased around the garden. Any other thoughts on ways to relate herbs to pre-teens??
i’d go with the harry potter theme. they mention lots of herbs in there…you could set them straight on the uses of herbs.
i’m beating my brain trying to think of things…
hey! i just found this link: http://www.kidsgardening.com/2005.kids.garden.news/may/pg1.html it’s also got lesson plans if you scroll down. i didn’t read through all of it but it might give you some ideas.
Thanks Stella!! The link has some great info. I have also decided to talk about Cleavers (since it works like velcro 🙂 and Horsetail (since it is such an old plant and has been around since the dinosaurs). With those, and chamomile and mandrake, and of course my discusion on being respectful to the plants because of everything they give us, that should take up 20 minutes!
It may be too late [just got back into town]. I used to teach outdoor science to sixth graders out in So. CA. Kids LOVED learning about how we use plants, including eating and the velcro-inspired stuff. They always remembered eating plants, or sniffing them [yarrow] the best.
Hey “another Maria” 🙂 ! I hope you had a nice trip to CA! Because of the farm insurance, the kids can’t put any herbs in their mouths!! Very frustrating! Kids love this kind of stuff, too. So, I am having to come up with other ways to grab their attention. More of the touchy and smelly herbs, I guess.