Launch
Students will meet a real Akron-area garden audience, notice the problem gardeners face when choosing sun or shade plants, ask and answer simple questions, and begin using respectful group routines and project language for the work ahead.
Days 1 - 2
🌿 Akron Garden Problem Visit
Launch 45m
🪴 Sun Shade Wonder Chart
Knowledge/Skill Building 45m
Research & Plan
Students will gather information from Akron-area garden helpers, sort plant evidence, and build a simple empathy plan that names who needs help, what gardeners need to know, and which clues matter before the class begins designing signs and book pages.
Days 3 - 5
🌿 Akron Garden Questions Circle
Community Experience 45m
☀️ Sun Shade Sorting Lab
Knowledge/Skill Building 45m
🪴 Garden Helper Needs Map
Deliverable 45m
Ideate & Prototype
Students will turn what they learned from Akron-area garden partners into simple design ideas, choose the clearest ways to help real users, build low-fidelity book-page and sign prototypes, and test those prototypes with classmates or a partner adult before revising.
Days 6 - 8
🌞 Garden Helper Idea Sort
Knowledge/Skill Building 35m
✏️ Plant Page Sketch Lab
Project Work 50m
🪴 Pretend Garden Path Check
Assessment 45m
Revise & Showcase
Students will revise their garden signs and picture-book pages through two feedback cycles, test whether their ideas are clear for a real user, and prepare a refined class draft and display that show how their choices help the Akron garden club.
Days 9 - 11
🖍️ Clearer Plant Pages
Knowledge/Skill Building 45m
🌿 Pretend Garden Path Test
Project Work 45m
📘 Garden Club Draft Walkthrough
Assessment 45m
Showcase
Students will present their finished Akron Garden Helpers picture book and sun-and-shade display to the garden club, explain how their drawings and words help real gardeners, and complete a brief garden-harvest reflection on how they worked with others and improved their ideas.
Day 12
🌻 Garden Helpers Showcase
Assessment 45m