April 14 was National Gardening Day, which reminded me of a perfect children’s book to celebrate it:Â Planting a Garden in Room 6: From Seeds to Salad by Caroline Arnold.
Caroline Arnold has visited Mrs. Best’s kindergarten classroom before for this series (see our previous review of Carolyn Arnold’s Butterflies in Room 6Â and Hatching Chicks in Room 6 was a winner of the Cybils Award for Elementary Nonfiction.)
This time:
The children in Room 6 are planting a vegetable garden.
Mrs. Best brings in some seeds and transplants. The children plant them in a raised bed garden outside their classroom. Caroline Arnold takes gorgeous photographs of the process, step by step.
Before long the plants have grown enough to be harvested and the children eat the results.
This book is absolutely delightful. The series is called “Life Cycles in Room 6,” but the life cycle aspect is subtle. Arnold includes just the right amount of information to hold a young reader’s attention. Plus, seeing children in the photographs draws them right in.
There’s also a how-to aspect. Helpful tips for gardening are included as mini-sidebars overlaid on a cute watering can graphic.
Planting a Garden in Room 6 would be fantastic to accompany a gardening project, either at home or at school. It would be a great addition to a unit on plants, as well. Grow some young minds and pick up a copy today!
Related Activities:
Timid about gardening? Start with a pot of lettuce. Find a container that is at least 8 inches in diameter. Fill it with soil (potting soil works best for containers.) Buy some seeds and plant them as directed by the instructions on the package.
Place your container in a place that gets at least 6 to 8 hours of direct sunlight, and water as needed.
If the seedlings seem crowded, you can carefully pull out a few to give the rest space to grow.
You should be able to start eating your lettuce in a few weeks.
Check our previous posts about:
See our growing list of books for gardening with children at Science Books for Kids.
Reading age †: ‎ 3 – 7 years
Publisher †: ‎ Charlesbridge (March 15, 2022)
ISBN-10 †: ‎ 1623542405
ISBN-13 †: ‎ 978-1623542405
Disclosure:Â An electronic galley was provided by the publisher for review purposes. Also, I am an affiliate with Amazon so I can provide you with cover images and links to more information about books and products. As you probably are aware, if you click through the highlighted title link and purchase a product, I will receive a very small commission, at no extra cost to you. Any proceeds help defray the costs of hosting and maintaining this website.
Follow along with the children in Mrs. Best’s kindergarten class as they hatch painted lady caterpillars from eggs, feed the caterpillars a special diet, and wait patiently for the butterflies to emerge from their chrysalids. As you can see from the book cover, nothing is as mesmerizing as a freshly-eclosed live butterfly!
