SOIL, SEEDS AND SURPRISESGrades K through 2
Addresses California Science Standards for:
Physical Sciences: 1a
Life Sciences: 2a, 2b, 2c, 2e
Investigation and Experimentation: 3a, 3b, 3d, 3e
Students discover the joys of sensory learning in the Children’s Garden and will visit learning stations on soil, water, and light in the Teaching Greenhouse. Students plant their own seeds to take back to the classroom.
Wednesdays onlyProgram begins at 10 a.m.
Duration: 90 minutes
Maximum of 40 students
DATESOct. 10 through Dec. 5
Jan. 9 through May 22
Lesson plans
JAPANESE GARDEN
Grades 4 through 12
Addresses California Visual and Performing Arts Standards:
1.0 Artistic Perception
3.0 Historical and Cultural Context
4.0 Aesthetic Valuing
This program introduces students to traditional Japanese gardens as an art form and contrasts them with traditional European-style gardens. Students will visit a 19th-century Japanese house and examine garden sculpture, a Zen garden, and plants native to Japan.
Wednesdays and 2nd & 4th ThursdaysProgram begins at 10 a.m.
Duration: 90 minutes
Maximum of 40 students
DATESOct. 10 through Dec. 5
Jan. 9 through May 23
Vocabulary lists and lesson plans
ADAPTATIONS IN A CHANGING WORLD
Grades 3 through 8
Addresses California Science Content Standards Grades 3-8
Life Sciences: 3a, 3b, 3d, 3e, 5e
Investigation and Experimentation: 5a, 5b, 5d, 5e, 6a, 6e, 7c, 7d
Students explore adaptations that allow plants to thrive in desert-like environments. Through observation in the Desert Garden, students will learn how plants’ color, shape, and surface texture can be adaptive and to predict how plant forms help them function
in a changing environment.
Wednesdays, Thursdays and FridaysProgram begins at 10 a.m.
Duration: 90 minutes
Maximum of 70 students
DATESOct. 10 through Dec. 7
Jan. 9 through May 24
POETRY IN THE CHINESE GARDENGrades 4 through 12
Addresses California Visual and Performing Arts Standards:
1.0 Artistic Perception
2.0 Creative Expression
3.0 Historical and Cultural Context
4.0 Aesthetic Valuing
Addresses Common Core State Standards
Language: 1a-e, 5b, 5c
World History and Geography: 6.6.3; 7.3.6
Using poetry as an entry point to the culture of Chinese gardens, students immerse themselves in the garden experience. They compare Chinese and Western landscape styles, learn about the role of literature in the garden, and create and share their own two-line poems inspired by what they see.
Thursdays onlyProgram begins at 10 a.m.
Duration: 90 minutes
Maximum of 80 students
DATESOct. 11 through Nov. 29
Jan. 10 through May 23