School Garden Month: Blooming Inspiration and Thousands of Children Outdoors
10. june 2025
May is traditionally the month when school gardens are transformed into places full of life, discovery and creativity. This year, the Karel Komárek Family Foundation (KKFF) has once again launched its popular School Garden Month campaign and prepared practical challenges and inspirational methodological materials for kindergartens to help teachers implement outdoor learning.
As part of the School Gardens Month event, teachers again this year used many professionally prepared and pre‑prepared activities designed to stimulate children's curiosity and desire to create and discover the world around them. Teachers worked with children to make earthworms or garden ponds or create pictures from natural materials in an unconventional outdoor art activity. Throughout the activities, the children could observe the variability of nature and explore its patterns up close. Thanks to gardening, they then acquired new knowledge and skills in a non‑violent way and learned to take care of their surroundings. In short, the school garden was transformed into a multifunctional space that offered valuable life lessons in addition to fun and games.
Practical materials and a great deal of interest from the nurseries
The KKFF Foundation, in cooperation with its partner nurseries, prepared methodological blocks and individual challenges that made it easier for teachers to prepare and implement outdoor activities. Teachers did not have to spend hours thinking and planning, but could use ready‑made materials and get straight to work with the children. Under the guidance of the Foundation's Methodology Centre, all activities were tested in practice in kindergartens in Soběslav, Mnichovice, and Telecí, which guarantees their functionality and practical benefit.
„Thanks to School Gardens Month, the children were very enthusiastic about observing insects and tending the garden. They discovered, for example, that bumblebees like sunny spots best, and the insect houses were bustling with life. We were so engrossed in watching the insects that we spent all our time outside for a few days ‑ and it was great. We had fun exploring, creating with natural materials and trying new things we couldn't do in the classroom.“
The high number of visitors to the Mesicskolnichzahrad.cz website testifies to the fact that the Month of School Gardens has aroused great interest among schools. Users downloaded almost 5,000 materials on the topic of outdoor education. Many kindergartens have also actively registered on the map of participating kindergartens. They made themselves known to others and became part of this growing community at the same time.
„School Gardens Month was clearly a successful event, confirming that school gardens provide invaluable space and opportunities for children's learning and development. We are delighted that we have been able to inspire so many teachers and contribute to school gardens becoming fully fledged outdoor classrooms.“
Program Manager, Transformations of Gardens
Experts agree: being outdoors has a beneficial effect
School Gardens Month is not just about fun activities, however; it also has the important goal of promoting a healthy lifestyle. Expert studies and psychologists agree that being out in the green has a proven beneficial effect on the mental and physical health of children and adults. Being outdoors reduces tension and stress, promotes the development of social skills and the ability to cooperate. In addition, it strengthens children's relationship with nature.
Join us!
This year's high level of interest in this popular May event has once again confirmed that outdoor learning has an integral place in modern education and that school gardens hold enormous potential worth exploring. If you didn't manage to get involved this year, don't despair! The garden is a great place to learn and explore all year round, not just in May. So try to take every opportunity to get outdoors with your children, enriching their learning with valuable outdoor experiences, and together improving both fitness and mood. And next year, you can get involved in School Gardens Month too.
Newsletter