Writing Garden Plans

Overview

In this second lesson of Planting Our Garden Stories, students plan a vegetable garden layout before writing. They use a simple drawing organiser and talk through a short series of sentences describing what they will plant and where.

Learning intentions

• WALT plan ideas using a drawing and simple organiser.
• WALT talk through our sentences before writing them.
• WALT describe what we will plant and where.
• WALT work towards a specific writing goal.

Success criteria

• I can draw and label a garden layout.
• I can say my sentences aloud before I write them.
• I can write three or more sentences about my garden plan.
• I can use a capital letter, spaces and a full stop.

Curriculum links

• English — Writing Processes: Planning: using simple organisers to plan ideas and structure a short text.
• English — Writing Processes: Planning: planning a short series of sentences through talk.
• English — Writing Processes: Planning: identifying and working towards a specific writing goal.
• English — Speaking and Listening: sharing ideas clearly and responding to others.

Lesson structure (60 minutes)

1. 0–7 min · Reconnect and hook. Display a picture of an empty garden bed and ask, “If we had one garden bed, what could we grow in it, and where would each plant go?” Open with the garden hook slide and invite students to turn and talk. Share that today they will make a garden plan for their own story.

2. 7–15 min · Model planning. Revisit the features of a useful plan using the planning and model slides. On the board, draw a simple rectangle for the garden, add a path and three vegetables, and think aloud: “I will plant carrots near the path. I need to say where they are.” Model saying, then writing: “I will plant carrots near the path.” Identify the writing goal: “I will make my garden plan clear by naming each plant and its place.”

3. 15–23 min · Oral sentence rehearsal. Demonstrate the sentence pattern, “I will plant ___ ___ the ___.” Practise location words such as near, next to, beside and in the corner. Students rehearse possible sentences with a partner, pointing to an imagined garden space. Pause after each sentence so partners can check: What is being planted? Where will it go?

4. 23–40 min · Independent garden planning. Distribute the garden plan worksheet. Students draw a garden layout, add at least three vegetables, and label each one. They then write three or four sentences explaining their choices. Encourage students to say each sentence quietly before writing it. Circulate and ask, “What will you plant first?” and “Where will it go?” Refer back to the garden plan instructions as needed.

5. 40–50 min · Partner read and improve. Students read their plans to a partner, showing the drawing as they speak. Partners listen for a plant and a place in each sentence, then offer one kind suggestion: “You could add where…” or “You could check your full stop.” Students make one improvement connected to their writing goal.

6. 50–57 min · Share and celebrate. Invite three or four students to share their drawings and one sentence. Use the sharing prompts to ask, “Which words helped you picture the garden?” and “How did the writer make the plan clear?” Reinforce that talking, drawing and writing are connected planning steps.

7. 57–60 min · Exit reflection. Students complete the final prompt on the garden plan reflection: “My writing goal was…” and “I met it by…” Collect worksheets to identify who can plan and describe location independently.

Resources

• Teacher board and markers
• the garden planning slide deck
• the garden plan worksheet
• Pencils, erasers and colouring pencils
• Optional photograph or illustration of a vegetable garden
• Word cards or board display: plant, grow, near, beside, next to, corner, path

Assessment

• During oral rehearsal, listen for students naming both a vegetable and its location.
• Check drawings and sentences for a clear layout, at least three labelled plants, and a matching plant/place description.
• Use the reflection to assess whether students can identify and work towards a specific writing goal.

Differentiation

• Support learners with a partly drawn garden rectangle, picture choices for vegetables, a displayed sentence frame, oral rehearsal with an adult, and scribing or speech-to-text where appropriate.
• Provide explicit modelling of location words and gestures or visual symbols for near, next to and in the corner. Pair EAL learners with supportive partners and accept labelled drawings before requiring complete sentences.
• Reduce the writing demand for students who need it: three sentences may be jointly constructed, copied from rehearsed oral language, or recorded for later transcription.
• Challenge confident writers to include a reason for one choice, such as “I will plant mint beside the path so we can smell it,” or to add a fourth plant and a second detail about the layout.

Extension

• Students add a garden sign or short opening sentence for the next story, such as “On Saturday, we planted our garden.”
• Students compare plans with a partner and explain one design choice using because.