Riot in the Garden is designed for Grade 2 and aligns with Wit & Wisdom Module 4, Good Eating. Also for Grade K, and aligns with Wit & Wisdom Module 2, Once Upon a Farm. All ages are invited to laugh and learn as we get down and earthy, celebrating the joys of gardening in interactive song, comedy, and story. Animal helpers / puppets include: worm, ladybug, spider, bee. The program will not only engage and delight students, but give them a FERTILE foundation of plant science and gardening know-how. A lot of ground is covered, learning about: GERMINATION, PHOTOSYNTHESIS, POLLINATION, SEED SAVING, COMPOSTING, SOIL SCIENCE, NUTRITION and more...
"Just What I Always Dreamed Of" is the students’ recurring refrain throughout a story about a carrot. A seed starts narrating from inside a seed packet, not knowing where it is or what it is. During the story, the seed experiences all that is involved in a vegetable's journey from seed to table: being planted, swelling, germination, ABSORPTION OF NUTRIENTS, SUNLIGHT, RAIN, WORMS, NATURAL FERTILIZATION. It survives insect PESTS, COMPETITION from other surrounding plants by a process of THINNING and WEEDING. It develops a long core and MATURES into a bright orange color. It is then HARVESTED, WASHED, BUNCHED and put on DISPLAY at a FARMER'S MARKET. After being bought, its top is cut off, it gets shredded, mixed with other ingredients, and finally is happily baked into carrot cake - "just what I always dreamed of!" (Along the way, it also dreamed of soil, water, sun…) This story fully encapsulates an entire gardening lesson.
Other songs have the students acting out the sowing of seeds, hoeing the weeds, and harvesting. They also become the germinating seed, sending down its RADICAL, SPROUTING upward into the sun, growing tall, BUDDING, BLOSSOMING, FRUITING and creating new seeds.
