Planting a Native Garden at School for Level 4

These lesson plans were developed by Grade 5/6 teacher at Marlborough Primary School in Heathmont VIC Rob Jones, working with a third year Plant Science Student from Monash University, Matthew Dexter.

The unit aims to introduce students to the issues that need to be considered when planting a native garden around their school through hands-on activities in the garden. The lessons are aimed at particular areas of science that need to be considered for such a project and then allows the students to localise them to their own school environment.

The unit culminates in the students preparing and planting a native garden in their own school.

• Ecosystems (pdf 200kb)
• Soil (pdf 228kb)
• Rainfall and Sunlight (pdf 308kb)
• Plants on the Site (pdf 76kb)
• Animals and Insects on the Site (pdf 72kb)
• Site Preparation (pdf 72kb)
• Site Planting (pdf 72kb)

Comments from grade 5/6 students on the unit

• Thal - “I enjoyed planting because I used the tree planter.I liked working and digging up the different soil samples. Some were different colours and some were fragile while others were thick.”
• Daniel - “I wasn’t really into plants before doing this but after these lessons I’m getting more fascinated with plants. Some of the soil layers were the A or B horizon.”
• Shauna - “I had no clue that the sun makes the plants grow. How amazing is that!”
• Taylah - “We learned how much acid was in the soil from different areas of our native garden.”
• Belinda - “I learned how to take the plant out of the container and plant it.”
• Danielle - “Before I started I wasn’t that interested in plants, now I like plants because I know more about them.”
• Kate - “I planted plants and managed to take out a big cotoneaster (weed) near the fence.”
• Stephanie - “I enjoyed putting the seeds in the potting mix.”
• Julia - “I liked planting plants. It was good fun. I learned there are different types of soils.”
• Caitlyn - “Weeds can kill plants by strangling them. I learned how to plant plants.”
• Jordan - “I enjoyed doing plants because we got to go outside more.”
• Tim - ”I learnt a lot about plants and worked hard”
• Alexander - “I found out what plants are weeds.”
• Tim - “I learned how to use garden tools corrctly.”
• Jordan - “I found the lesson very informing like when we learnt about the Xylem.”
• John - “I liked the site preparation because I liked digging holes and compacting the weeds into the bin.”
• Darcy - “I learned about an ecosystem. My favorite lessons were when we went outside.”