Let's celebrate strawberry season in the Learning Garden!
Strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa)season in Atlanta is April through June. It's one of the edibles in the Learning Garden that can be harvested while students are in school. Strawberries are members of the rose family and are perennials, which means they come up year after year. Strawberries bear fruit for about five years. Strawberries are the only fruit with seeds on the outside of the fruit. The average berry has about 200 seeds!
We have recently redesigned our strawberry beds to maximize production. Strawberry plants send out runners which turns into new plants. Each year, the runner plants can be moved to a new box. A garden bed with plants 4 years old will be removed and replace with new plants from runners. This will allow for maximum production and harvest!
We have recently redesigned our strawberry beds to maximize production. Strawberry plants send out runners which turns into new plants. Each year, the runner plants can be moved to a new box. A garden bed with plants 4 years old will be removed and replace with new plants from runners. This will allow for maximum production and harvest!
Strawberry Li-berry
Teachers can read a book to students, or students can partner up and find a place to read in the Learning Garden.
After reading how the the little mouse tries to protect the strawberry from the bear, students create a disguise for a strawberry they draw.
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This book re-tells the Cherokee legend of how strawberries came to be.
When the Cherokee eat strawberries today, it reminds them to be nice and kind to each other. After reading the story, students will draw a strawberry, write a way they can be nice to someone in their class or in their family, then add 200 seeds to their strawberry. |
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Other Strawberry Activities
All supplies needed will be in the courtyard
Students write a strawberry acrostic poem, or do a scientific drawing of the strawberry plant.
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Students color the strawberry life cycle, cut out and then fold to make a strawberry. They can also illustrate the life cycle themselves.
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The chipmunks are trying to cancel the Strawberry Festival!
Students take a walk around the courtyard observing the strawberry beds and looking for other evidence of wildlife eating plants, then return to brainstorm ways to keep the strawberries protected. They can use dry erase boards for their ideas and present them to the class. |
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