Every year I volunteer to be a parent reading helper in my kids’ classes.  This year I asked the teacher if I could be the garden teacher instead!  She said “yes,” and so every week I have the class for a 1/2 hour of garden class.  During our first class, each table of children received a pile of patterned and handmade papers, old seed packets and pages from gardening catalogues as well as a 50 cent composition notebook.  They then proceeded to decorate the books they will use all year long to record garden vocabulary, keep their drawings and make journal entries.  Last week we listed the words “snapdragon” and “transplant” and then made a chart of warm season and cool season vegetables.  We went to the garden to plant a cool season veggie (broccoli) and tasted a warm season veggie (tomato.)  I like that they will have these keepsake journals to take home at the end of the year, full of all of their new gardening knowledge.