Earth Day Birthday!

45 minutes

Intended for 24 guests, grades K-2

Supplies

2 flats (48 flowers each) of marigolds
24 trowels (Milk jug shovels)
"The Curious Garden" by Peter Brown
Popcorn
Juice Boxes

Program

Earth Day is April 22nd!  What better way to celebrate than by having a birthday party for the Earth!  And who doesn't like the gift of flowers?

Before we can even begin, this program takes a bit of preparation and planning.  Unless your library has a massive budget, or a lot of gardening staff that knows how to share well, you're going to need to figure out  way to produce 24 trowels.  Fortunately, thanks to Pinterest, you can learn how to turn any old piece of trash into something moderately functional.

I had stumbled upon this project on Pinterest which came from the blog Darling, Just Be...

In this project, you turn an old milk jug into a trowel!  This is perfect.  The kids won't be digging deep holes, and then they can even take them home to use at the beach or what have you!  So for this project to even take place, you need to collect about 24 milk jugs.  And then properly fashion them into trowels perfect for little hands.  

Marigolds are in season in April, they help to keep away mosquitoes and ants and they are pretty!  Which is what makes marigolds a perfect choice for this planting project.  Each child will be able to plant 2 flowers along the border of the library garden. The planting outside should take about 25 minutes.

After planting outside, the kids can come in for a reading of Peter Brown's "The Curious Garden" and have some popcorn and juice!