Word Gardens

During the pandemic (2020) when webinars were a weekly staple in my life I became inspired by a presentation from a biology professor and an education professor from St. Michael’s College in Vermont. Together they created a learning garden for their students.

This garden was like no other I have seen. While all aspects of the learning garden were intriguing, the one that really stood out to me was the word garden.

While it may not be feasible for schools to have large rocks engraved with words, it is easy to make your own word garden. I tried collecting my own rocks, but that proved challenging. I settled on purchasing them from a craft store and have since found a better, cheaper option from Amazon (120 flat rocks for around $16). 

My word garden contains words from each of the different parts of speech, as well as punctuation. I decided to color code the parts of speech by painting the rocks then writing the words in marker. I think if I did it again I would just use different colored markers to write the words.  I would also include prefixes and suffixes, as well as ways to make words plural or possessive, and some blank rocks for students to create their own words. I like the idea of using the word garden as an inquiry center, exploring questions like:

• What do all of the green words have in common?
• Can you form a sentence using just one color rock?
• How many phrases can you make in 5 minutes?
• Choose a rock of each color and make a silly sentence.
• Work with a partner to write a poem or story.

This is a unique way to incorporate vocabulary words into the garden or involve family members.