Share with students the fact that herbs contain oils which create the odors and flavors we experience. Many herbs can be easily grown in a classroom light garden or windowsill, started from seeds, cuttings, or plants. Local nurseries, friends' gardens, and catalogs are good sources for herb seeds and plants. You can have children mix tiny seeds with a small amount of sand to make them easier to sprinkle over the soil. Mist the soil, and cover containers with plastic to keep seeds moist until they germinate.
Some herbs are quicker and easier to start from cuttings than from seeds.
To take cuttings, snip healthy stems 34 inches from the growing tip. Remove leaves from the lower half of the cutting, and plant the cutting in a soil-less mix. Water gently and cover the container with a plastic bag until new top growth appears. Many herbs can be purchased from nurseries as young plants, or dug, particularly in the spring, from the new shoots emerging from mature plants outdoors. Each fifth grader in Vermont teacher Pat Pierce's class got to adopt an herb to raise in their Grow Lab.