Herbs have been used for at least 5,000 years by all cultures for cooking, medicine, crafts, and cosmetics.
Many herbs are easy to raise in the classroom.
Herbs have such rich histories and so many uses that they can provide an enticing, multi sensory theme for learning science concepts and skills, studying other cultures, and tying in subjects across the curriculum. In many cases, herbs' oils and compounds that cause healing, good flavors, or aromas, are merely adaptations that help the particular plant survive in its environment. Consider doing some activities to engage your students in identifying some of the characteristics that make an herb an herb. Then ask them to organize the plants into groups with similar attributes, and let other classmates guess how the groups were categorized. Have students taste six edible leaves spinach, basil, lettuce, rosemary, thyme, and cabbage and describe the tastes of each.