Leader Downloads
Downloads
PDF files for your use. Please give credit to Kids Growing Strong if these handouts are useful. Likewise, if you see mistakes or can add improvements, let us know. We are always striving for excellence!
Scrapbook for Your Pictures
If you have a user name, sign in and upload a photo of your garden or something you "dished up" fresh from the garden. If you do not have a user name yet, ask for one by clicking in the upper right hand corner of the screen where it says "Create new account."
Printables
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A Healthy Handout for LeadersDownload the Kids Growing Strong "Healthy Handout." It is a .pdf document with the Harvard food pyramid and information about staying active. |
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Printables to Color from Dole, Inc.A number of years ago, Dole, Inc. had these handouts available on their website. We cannot find these same printables on their new, interactive kids' site "Fruit & Veggie Color Champions" or their adult information website, "Fruits and Vegetables Matter". Both websites have lots of great ideas but we think these sheets are still valuable so they are posted here for download. Full credit goes to Dole. They certainly have a visually beautiful and content-rich site.
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Power In & Power OutDownload the "Power In and Power Out" handout that explains that we get energy, measured in "calories", from the sun in the form of food. If we get more energy than we use, it gets stored for later use.
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Good Guy Bug MasksThere is a series of four "Good Guys in the Garden" bug masks including a butterfly, lady bug, green lacy-wing and bumblebee. They can all be downloaded from this page. |
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Scarecrows to ColorThis 11x17" sheet has several scarecrows to use as a Fall activity to have fun with scarecrows. But don't stop with just coloring. It's always fun to create a scarecrow or dress-up like on yourself. |
Mammoth Sunflowers
August, 2010
Tyler Carver planted his packet of seeds from Kids Growing Strong back in Iowa last spring. While some of the seeds washed away in the heavy rains this year, the Mammoth Sunflower surived and grew to almost 10 feet tall. It must love that midwest humidity!
Tomatoes, Tomatoes Everywhere!
Eat 'em, Store 'em and Save Some Seeds for next year.
As summer winds down, the tomato crop is usually at its peak. Our little patio tomatoes are sweet and juicy. The best tomato I tasted this year was a Brandywine; a deep, dark luscious heirloom variety. I am saving some seeds from it to try next summer. It is a great time to stock up on the tasty tomatoes available right now so you can enjoy their homestyle goodness all year. You can can them or, like us, we just clean them and toss them into the freezer in plastic bags. We then have tomatoes all year for sauce, soups, stews, whatever. READ MORE...
Monarch Larva Monitoring Project
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Butterflies are important neighbors to have in our gardens.They help plants produce seeds by pollinating flowere.
Monarch butterflies are considered by many people to be the most beautiful of all butterflies, and are called the “king” of the butterflies, hence the name “monarch”. All butterflies go through a life cycle that transforms their bodies. Read more about the amazing transformation of the Monarch here.
The Monarch butterfly is sometimes called the "milkweed butterfly" because its larvae eat the plant. In fact, milkweed is the only thing the larvae can eat!
But monarchs are losing places to find food and lay their eggs. Scientists are trying to learn more about what is happening to them.
You can help! The Monarch Larva Monitoring Project (MLMP) is a citizen science project involving volunteers from across the United States and Canada. You can sign up to monitor patches of milkweed weekly to count monarch eggs and larvae, and assess milkweed density. This data will help scientists determine the distribution and abundance patterns of monarch butterflies in North America.
It's a Tough Time for Bees
Just ask the bees!
Bees are now using forms of communal transportation (trucks) to get to work. They are getting trucked to pollinate the plants that we depend on for food. (Leaders: for more background info, click here to read Beeline to Extinction")
Bees are disappearing all over the country. They call it CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder) which simply means that beekeepers are find their hives have honey, larvae, and the queen in them, but no BEES and no trail left behind to tell what happened to them. Read more...
Move-It!
Look at your body...look at the way you are built.
You have legs and arms, finders and toes, and all up and down there are hinge-like structures that help you to bend. You are designed to MOVE.
Not only that, you are designed to be with people. Scientific studies are even beginning to prove what people have always known...a sense of community makes us feel whole.
Gardening With Kids
What could be more fun?
Exploring the outdoors with a bunch of kids. Many of us would not mind going back to a time when it was safe (at least safe-er) to roam the great outdoors and discover amazing new things each and every time you went went exploring with your friends.
Well, the amazing things are still out there to see ....
- bugs that light up at night
- gorgeous butterflies that unfurl huge nose-like structures (proboscis) into beautiful flowers in order to sip up the energy plants so generously provide in nectar
- green bugs that look like aliens from other planets that appear to be praying as they search for bugs to eat in the garden
- slithering mollusks (slugs) that drag themselves along the sidewalk leaving a slimy wake
- sunflowers that turn throughout the day following the path of the sun
- leaves....all kins of leaves...every shape and size, furry, velvety, spiney, smooth, shiny, dull, red, green, yellow and purple....each one grabbing photons from sunshine and transforming the energy they capture and transforming it for the rest of us to power ourselves
- and free snacks!!!! nuts, berries, sunflower seeds, tomatoes...all sorts of delicious treats
This and much, much more is out there, but are many children looking? Their eyes seem to be averted toward televisions, computer screens, video games, and shopping centers.
Gardening gives us all a chance to get out and "get back to our roots." Take the opportunity to garden with a child. Your life, and that of the child, will be forever richer because of it!
Some Ideas:
