Collect the strips and combine for a collaborative classroom poem. In this cumulative story, Jack begins with tools, a plot of land, and seeds. Add rain and sunshine and watch his plants grow. The illustrations are filled with the worms, birds, and flowers that bring a garden to life. These activities can be adapted for use in grades 1-5.
Literature is an effective methodology to tie learning with serving the community.
Jack's Garden can be used for curriculum connections with science, social studies, language arts, math, and drama. Ask students to bring in a fruit or vegetable that has seeds inside, e.g., apple, pear, avocado, tomato, peppers, cucumber, and melon. Have students find the seeds and compare them. Bring in foods that do not have visible seeds, like lettuce and radishes. Distribute to the children and discuss how these seeds, encased in a hard shell, end up in the soil.