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! 🌱🔎