Let’s Grow English! School Garden Activities for Teaching English in October 🌱

Years ago, I shared a little idea on this blog about growing plants in tiny pots and making simple labels for them. At the time, it was a small gardening activity, but looking back, I can see how many opportunities there are to use a school garden as a natural English learning environment.  Over the years, as educational approaches have evolved and schools have embraced more innovative ways of learning, the value of outdoor education and hands-on experiences has become increasingly clear  and a school garden can be much more than a place where children learn about plants. It can become a wonderful setting for teaching English through real-life activities, combining vocabulary, grammar, Science, Maths and outdoor learning. In facts sometimes, the best English classroom doesn't have four walls, instead it has soil, seeds, little hands… and something growing.

A lovely way to introduce our school garden project is with Eric Carle's The Tiny Seed. 

Here you can read about a whole lesson plan built around this fabulous book especially if you live in a part of the world where spring is just around the corner.

The story gives us a wonderful starting point for talking about seeds, plants, seasons, weather and growing and after reading or watching the story, we can ask: What does a seed need to grow?
☀️ sunlight💧 water / 🌧️ rain 🌱 soil  🌡️ warmth... And suddenly, we already have our first English lesson! 

Are you teaching older students? Then it's time to practice Present Simple sentences! Because... Grammar doesn't have to start with a grammar worksheet, sometimes it can start with a real question about the world around us:  

A plant/ seed needs water/ soil / sunlight.
Roots take water from the soil.
Plants grow.

It is also a simple way to notice the difference between:

A plant needs...
Plants need...

🥕 Now comes the big question: What can we plant in our school garden in October?

Depending on the local climate and growing conditions, October can be a good time to grow a variety of cool-season vegetables. 🌱🍂 For example:

🌱 Seeds to sow in October

• 🥕 Carrots
• 🫛 Peas
• 🫘 Broad beans
• 🥬 Spinach
• 🔴 Radishes

🪴 Young plants or seedlings to plant

• 🥬 Lettuce
• 🥬 Cabbage
• 🥦 Broccoli
• 🥦 Cauliflower
• 🥬 Kale
• 🧅 Onions

Once we have chosen what to plant, the garden becomes a fantastic context for learning and using English garden vocabulary.

We can introduce our Garden Word Wall:

seed – soil – root – stem – leaf – flower – plant – vegetable – water – sunlight

And then our Garden Action Words:

dig – sow – plant – cover – water – grow – pick – pull – smell – touch – count – measure

The important thing is that children don't just learn these words from flashcards, but they use them: they touch the soil, they plant the seeds, they water the vegetables, they observe the leaves, and, while they are doing all these things, they are using English. 

At this point, depending on your students’ level, you can expand grammar and vocabulary practice through a variety of games and activities. Here are some suggestions:

1. Imperatives: Let's Work in the Garden!

When we are gardening, English becomes the language of action. Sentences like dig a hole, plant the seed, cover it with soil, water the plant, can be even turned this into a quick game of Simon Says:

• Simon says, dig / plant a seed / pick a tomato
  
• Simon says, water the plant / smell a flower
  
• Simon says, touch the leaves! / pull the weeds
  
  

 2. What Will Happen to Our Seeds?

And now we can go back to our tiny seeds, before planting, ask: What do you think will happen?

 Children can make predictions:

I think the seed will grow.
I think the plant will get bigger.
I think we will have flowers.
I think we will have vegetables.

This is a lovely, meaningful way to practise will for predictions and you can create a Garden Predictions Chart and come back to it as the plants grow.

Were our predictions correct?

The children will have a real reason to use English to talk about what happened.

3. Present Continuous: Guess What I'm Doing!

While the children are working, ask: What are you doing? or... You can turn this into a little garden charades activity: one child chooses an action and mimes it while the others guess:

• Are you digging? 
• Are you planting a seed? 
• Are you watering the lettuce? 
• Are you picking a tomato? 

Definitely a fun way to practice Present Continuous questions and answers.

4. Past Continuous: What were they doing?

Finally, if you take a few photographs while the children are gardening, you can use them later for practicing some past continuous Q&A: What were they doing?

• She was planting a seed.
• He was watering the plants.
• They were digging the soil.

Real photographs give children something meaningful to talk about and help them connect grammar with their own experiences.

There are many ways to develop this activity: students can write sentences in their notebooks, work in pairs to ask and answer questions, create a poster using the photos, or even make a short class presentation!

5. There Is / There Are: What's in Our Garden?

Once the garden starts growing, children can explore it and make their own sentences using there is and there are, together with some, any and numbers.

• There is a tomato plant.
• There are three lettuce plants.
• There are some carrots.
• There isn't any broccoli.

They can also play Garden Detectives, exploring the garden with a little checklist:

☐ There is a flower. 
☐ There are five leaves. 
☐ There is a tall plant. 
☐ There are some small plants.

This way, a simple grammar activity turns into a fun outdoor treasure hunt! 🌱🔎

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🌟 ¡Learning English doesn’t simply mean filling in the blanks! 🇬🇧✨

Many English as a Second Language (ESL) activities rely solely on “fill-in-the-blank” exercises ✏️… but the real goal should be to help children speak, understand, and use English naturally. 🗣️💬

🎨 Learning by doing makes it much easier, more fun, and more motivating!

And you’ll be surprised at how quickly children can start achieving real results. 🌈🚀

📚 If you’re looking for creative and engaging activities to make English learning more dynamic, check out my online store! 🛍️💕

👉 ESL Children's Worksheets

✨ Learn, play, speak, and grow! ❤️

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📍Do you struggle with a challenging class, where many of your students get distracted and their academic performance doesn’t reflect all the effort you put into preparing and teaching your lessons? 

📍Does this situation frustrate you, and would you like your students to learn more while enjoying the process? 

👉Something similar happened to me during my elementary teaching internship, and in my latest book, Pygmalion in the Classroom: A Real Experience—based on my senior thesis and my internship at a primary school in Madrid—I’ll tell you how we managed to turn things around and achieve resounding success! 

Don’t miss it! 

Available in digital and print formats on Amazon in every country, and on the major e-book platforms.

🍂 Autumn Outdoors: Nature, Land Art & English Learning

Autumn is the perfect season to take learning outside. The colors change, leaves fall, acorns, pinecones appear everywhere, and suddenly the schoolyard becomes a giant outdoor classroom. For young learners, autumn offers so many opportunities to observe, collect, classify, count, create and talk, all while moving, exploring and enjoying nature. And there is another wonderful way to look at autumn: through Land Art. 

One of the first land artist I met online was Richard Shilling is a British land artist who creates  temporary artworks using natural materials found in the environment around him. Leaves, sticks, stones, seeds, grass and other natural objects become circles, patterns, sculptures and beautiful temporary compositions. His work is a wonderful starting point for children because they don't need paint, glue or lots of art supplies.They simply need to look closely at nature and use what they find.

And there is something particularly special about Land Art: it doesn't have to last forever: the wind can move it, the rain can change it, a leaf can fall away... And the artwork becomes part of nature again. This makes Land Art a beautiful way to talk to children about seasons, change, impermanence and our connection with the natural world.  

Here some ideas to enjoy both and practice English at the same time:

🍂 1. Autumn Land Art

Take the children outside and invite them to collect a few natural materials: 🍁 leaves 🌰 acorns🌲 pinecones🪵 sticks 🪨 small stones🌿 grass or seed pods

Then challenge them to create their own temporary artwork. They can make: circles, spirals, lines, patterns, symmetrical designs, little sculptures, nature pictures, etc.

Before starting, look at some of Richard Shilling's work and ask:

What can you see?
What shapes can you find?
Which materials did the artist use?
What colors can you see?
What happens if the wind blows?

ESL boost: Encourage children to describe what they are creating:

I'm using leaves and sticks.
It's a circle.
The leaves are orange and yellow.
I'm making a pattern.
This is bigger than that one.

🍁 2. Nature Mandalas

Give children a small collection of natural materials and invite them to create a nature mandala. Start from a center point and work outwards using:

🍂 leaves 🌰 acorns 🌲 pinecones 🪵 sticks 🪨 stones

Encourage children to repeat shapes, colors and patterns.

Useful vocabulary: circle, center, repeat, pattern, shape, colors, bigger, smaller, next to, between, etc.

You can also ask:
What comes next?
Can you make both sides the same?
How many leaves did you use?

🌿 Why I Love Land Art with Young English Learners

One of the things I love most about outdoor learning is that English becomes meaningful because children have something real to talk about.

They are not simply learning the word leaf from a flashcard, they are holding a leaf, they are comparing it with another leaf, they are deciding where to put it in a pattern, they are asking questions, they are creating something together.

And... suddenly, language has a purpose.

This is also why Land Art fits so naturally into an inquiry-based approach: children observe, wonder, make choices, experiment and create. There isn't always one “right” answer, which is exactly what makes the experience so valuable.

A simple autumn walk can become: “I wonder…” → “I notice…” → “I found…” → “What if…?” → “Let's create!”

For young English learners, these experiences provide a natural reason to use language while developing curiosity, creativity, collaboration and confidence.
And isn't that what learning should feel like?

🍂 Go outside. Look closely. Get curious. Create with what nature gives you.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

🌟 ¡Learning English doesn’t simply mean filling in the blanks! 🇬🇧✨

Many English as a Second Language (ESL) activities rely solely on “fill-in-the-blank” exercises ✏️… but the real goal should be to help children speak, understand, and use English naturally. 🗣️💬

🎨 Learning by doing makes it much easier, more fun, and more motivating!

And you’ll be surprised at how quickly children can start achieving real results. 🌈🚀

📚 If you’re looking for creative and engaging activities to make English learning more dynamic, check out my online store! 🛍️💕

👉 ESL Children's Worksheets

✨ Learn, play, speak, and grow! ❤️

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

📍Do you struggle with a challenging class, where many of your students get distracted and their academic performance doesn’t reflect all the effort you put into preparing and teaching your lessons? 

📍Does this situation frustrate you, and would you like your students to learn more while enjoying the process? 

👉Something similar happened to me during my elementary teaching internship, and in my latest book, Pygmalion in the Classroom: A Real Experience—based on my senior thesis and my internship at a primary school in Madrid—I’ll tell you how we managed to turn things around and achieve resounding success! 

Don’t miss it! 

Available in digital and print formats on Amazon in every country, and on the major e-book platforms.