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Reuniting Kids w/ Nature – The Living Teepee

MATERIALS: 

Six 4-5 foot poles, six square feet in your yard or garden, a rubber mallet, twine or sting, beans and or sunflowers, a shovel, compost or garden soil, permission, help from at least one other person

TIME FRAME: 

60 minutes + growing time

PROCEDURE:

  1. With permission to dig and help from a friend, pick a spot in your yard or garden that is big enough and gets enough sun to support your living teepee
  2. With your shovel, gently loosen up the soil in a five-foot circle
    1. You can use a rope to help you create your circle before you start digging
  3. Carefully place your poles, standing up, evenly in a circle, leaving a little more space between the two that will become your doorway.
  4. Using your rubber mallet, hammer your poles down into the earth about 6 inches
  5. Next, leaning the poles into each other, hammer them down another few inches so they are sturdy.
  6. With the top ends of the poles leaning against each other, tie them together nice and tight
  7. Pack the dirt down around your poles using either your hands or your feet
  8. Once the dirt is good and packed down, loosen up some of the soil right around the base of each pole, but not too deep…only about an inch or two.
  9. Mix your compost or gardening soil into the loosened dirt and plant your seeds along the outside of your teepee poles
  10. Water regularly and enjoy!

REFLECTION:

What can your living teepee be used for?  Will you track its germination and growth?  Who will you share your teepee with?  Are there other plants you could make a teepee out of?

TIPS & IMAGININGS:

If you have any extra stepping stones in the yard (and have permission), you can easily add a few stones to the inside of your teepee to create a little seat if you prefer to not sit directly on the ground.  Before putting up your teepee, you can paint your poles different colors!
xoxo,
M
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5 Comments on “Reuniting Kids w/ Nature – The Living Teepee

  1. And… now that I’ve called you LISA, Melissa, I hope you’re forgive me!!!! DUHHHH.

  2. I hope you re-run this post in the spring, Lisa… what a great idea for those with kids at home. I’m going to concoct one for the grandkids next year!

    1. No worries, Mary Ann! And yes, there will be a special post in the spring that will include this activity! Hope you’re having a great week!

  3. I love this idea! I wish my yard were a bigger because I would totally do this. We live in a townhouse and hence have quite a small yard. Most of it is a deck.

    I have a 9′ x 3′ garden that I plan on expanding to be the entire area that’s not deck. It’s ambitious but after a great garden year (this year), I’m hooked and want more.

    I’m totally keeping this in mind if we ever move though. So lovely for children!
    xoxo

    1. I have an idea for an adaptation! I may include it when I pull together a special post including all of these activities early in the new year (just in time for those of us planning the 2014 garden)!

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