Additional Activities & Curricula
Environmentally-Friendly Art
Gardens, Music, and Drama
Curriculum Integration
Garden Arts Inspiration
Additional Activities & Curricula
Garden Scans
Make digital photo collages of plants using a flatbed scanner. Create beautiful works of art that can also be used as a “record book” to document plant growth and seasonal changes.
Garden Journal
Make garden field journals – a great craft which can be used to explore the garden, to document plant growth and development, and to artistically portray the plants you discover.
Plant a Card
Learn how to make handmade cards, which when planted, sprout a green surprise.
NASA: Climate Kids
Garden Stepping Stones
DIY Stepping Stones
Sunflowers
This lesson plan uses sunflowers as the focus in combining gardening and the arts.
The Kennedy Center ArtsEdge
The Sunflower Project: Botany, Art, and Culture
Comprehensive arts curriculum for K-12.
Nebraska Statewide Arboretum
Art in the Garden Action Projects
Descriptions of potential projects youth could do for gardens and gardeners in their community.
Garden Mosaics
Towers ‘n Flowers
Using The Private Eye (a magnifying lens that fits against your eye), students go on a clue-gathering mission inside a variety of cut flowers to discover how flower forms differ, how they are the same, and how these forms help flowers reproduce.
The Private Eye
Monet Art Project
A lesson plan integrating local and art history with visual arts.
The Luther Burbank Virtual Museum
Flower Pounding
The natural pigments in flowers pounded into prepared fabric can make a unique piece of art. Find out which flowers are the best to use, which ones hold their color the best, special techniques, and more.
Dave’s Garden
School Garden Mural Project
Creating a mural can make an indoor garden come alive all winter long.
Life 123
Environmentally-Friendly Art
Non-Toxic Art Supplies
This company specializes in non-toxic alternatives to traditional and modern art supplies.
Budget Art Materials
Max Oils
Oil paints that clean up with water instead of chemicals.
Grumbacher Art
Art From Any Old Thing
Lots of lesson plans for creating recycled arts projects with elementary, middle, and high school students.
KinderArt
Articles on Toxic Risks of Art Supplies
Washington Toxic Coalition’s Fact Sheet on Art and Hobby Supplies
Green America: Are Art Supplies Toxic?
Encourage Creativity with Healthy Art Supplies
Gardens, Music, and Drama
Science Songs for Teaching
Find a great tune to sing with your group of youth – get them engaged in the world of plants and gardens through singing about them! Check out “A Plant Will Grow” and “Plant Development” among others.
Songs for Teaching
Banana Slug String Band
Teaching through science, song, and celebration.
www.bananaslugstringband.com
Food Safety Music
Featuring the Food Safety Music of Dr. Carl Winter.
Food Safety Music Videos
World Musical Instruments Made from Plants at Birmingham Botanical Garden
Making-Making Music From Around the World (pdf)
How to Make a Shekere
Instructions for making a traditional percussion instrument from a gourd and other materials.
Djembe-L: Making Drums and Percussion Instruments
Curriculum Integration
Why Arts Education is Crucial, and Who’s Doing It Best
Making the case for why arts education is critical for all children and youth.
Edutopia
Arts for Learning
This searchable database provides materials for good practices in arts education.
www.arts4learning.org
Champions of Change
This report details the impact of the arts on youth learning.
The Kennedy Center ArtsEdge
Arts Integration: Frameworks, Research, and Practice
This report focuses on how arts can successfully be integrated.
Arts Education Partnership
Learning Through Art
A program of the Guggenheim Museum, this website has descriptions and images of projects designed and conducted by teaching artists and teachers. Some projects include extended lesson plans with inquiry suggestions, art-making steps, and curriculum information. Grades 2-6.
Guggenheim
Children Grow in the Garden
The youth development benefits of a garden-based learning program.
Iowa State University Extension
Art & Ecology: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Education
Here you’ll find a set of resources for teachers, extensive links, and an online exhibition of contemporary ecological art.
GreenMuseum.org
Teaching Science Through Art
A comprehensive list of books and other supplies to order, with activities and lesson plans that link art, science, and nature.
Acorn Naturalists
Teaching Science Through the Visual Arts and Music
An article for educators on how to encourage scientific discovery and build a range of skills through the arts.
Scholastic Early Childhood Today
Forget Your Botany
See this article on “Developing children’s sensibility to nature through arts-based environmental education.”
GreenMuseum.org
Garden Arts Inspiration
The Magic Garden
Artist Lynn Titleman Rizzotto’s Children’s Creativity Workshops are an inspiring example of arts-in-the-garden activities that can happen even in your own backyard!
Children’s Creativity Workshops
Art as Evaluation and Assessment Tool
The Ithaca Children’s Garden uses participant’s pre- and post-drawings of gardens as an evaluation and assessment tool.
Garden Drawing Evaluation (pdf)
Garden Plants and Insects Ceramic Mosaic at U.S. Botanic Gardens
See this article highlighting UC Davis students’ ceramic mosaic installation at the U.S. Botanic Gardens.
UC Davis Nature’s Gallery
The Seed Store Fundraiser
Read this article about Greenfield Central School’s Seed Store where they sold garden seeds in student-decorated seed packets.
Sustainable Fundraising for Schools, The Maine Organic Farmer and Gardener
Silly Fruit and Veggie Art
How are You Peeling?: Foods with Moods by Saxton Freymann and Joost Elffers
Garden Action Project Database
Searchable database of garden action projects.
Garden Mosaics
Time Lapse Photography Movies
A collection of short movies made from time lapse photography and descriptions of the plant processes.
Plants in Motion