I teach a STEM innovation class for two-year-olds at The Preschool in Atlanta, Georgia. Our class incorporates PBL into our standards and teaching practices. Our school is play-based, and several years ago, we started a STEM program to enhance our curriculum. My class includes children of varying ages, with some turning three years old at the beginning of the school year in September and others turning three in the spring or early summer.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays during the school year, my class brings their lunch to school, and we eat lunch together. The conversation at lunch is always entertaining — with no filter, as they are 2 and 3! My class loves to talk about what is in their lunch boxes and who likes or does not like what was packed. We have several allergies in our class, so fruits and veggies are a popular (and safe) item packed in their lunch.

Inspiration for the Project: Planning from My Students' Interests

The farmer’s market idea came during lunch one day as we talked about the stores they like to go to when grocery shopping with their parents. We discussed what foods we see while shopping and wondered where these foods come from. The idea of growing our own food, taste-testing what we grew, and setting up a stand to sell these items came from that lunchtime conversation. We wanted to know where food comes from — and not just that it appears in the pantry at home!

Getting Started

We asked parents to take a picture of their child with their favorite fruits and vegetables so we could print them out and make a class book. This led to each child bringing in their favorite fruit or vegetable for a taste test. We had a variety of choices! I decided we should graph what we liked and didn’t like to help us remember when it was time to decide what to plant.

Then we discussed what would grow in a classroom with limited light or in our garden bin outside, which led to a conversation about the weather. March weather in Georgia can be temperamental — 60s one day and 40s the next — and the children had many suggestions! After looking at our favorite foods from the graphs, we decided to grow corn, lima beans, apples, lemons, and potatoes. We observed the different textures and sizes of the seeds before we planted them.

A Shift in Direction

As we continued talking about growing fruits and vegetables to sell at a farmer’s market, we realized the children didn’t really know where the produce at the farmer’s market (or grocery store) actually comes from. So, we backtracked! We paused our farmer’s market stand and started learning about food that grows on a farm — including where we get milk and eggs.

No one in the class had visited a farm before, so we watched a few farm-related videos, read books, and talked about life on the farm and the chores kids can do. We learned that some kids get up before school to milk cows or check on chickens. To help them connect, we shared things we do around the house to help our parents. Several kids said they help cook dinner, take out the trash, or pick up their toys. Everyone was eager to share how they help out at home.

A Real Connection: Farmer Jason

Our favorite farm videos were of Farmer Jason, who runs Cog Hill Farm in Alabama. He has informative videos where you can meet the animals and read his blog. We came up with questions to ask him and emailed him. I had no idea he would respond so quickly! He sent a personal video where he talked to the kids about his farm and answered their questions.

We asked, “Do cows have teeth?”, “Are there fish in the pond that the ducks swim in?”, and “Do you have any baby animals on your farm?” He wrote several books about his farm, and we bought two to read in class.

Our Farmer’s Market Stand

Now the fun part — creating our farmer’s market! We found a large cardboard box and painted and decorated it to make a stand to showcase what we were growing and selling. Each child participated in their own way — choosing to hand out flyers to the other class, “man” the stand, pass around the items we were growing, or hand out the homemade lemonade we made for them to try. This was our end-of-project celebration.

Learning Through Projects

This project was based on two of our GELDS (Georgia Early Learning and Development Standards) domains. For science, we investigated plants and animals and how they grow and change. For math, we measured using a variety of tools and created pictorial graphs.

Our class learned to try new things — especially foods they may not have tasted before. Peer pressure helped: if one tried something, they all wanted to try! We learned to work together as a team and discovered that there was a role for everyone in creating and showcasing this project. We also learned to be patient — watching our plants grow took a lot longer than we expected.

I was surprised by how engaged the class was, especially during the food tasting part, and how excited they were to share what they learned with another class. Even our shyer kids were eager to participate.

I loved that this project came about organically — just from eating lunch together. The flow of the project was seamless and effortless. Seeing the kids so excited confirmed for me that you can take any idea of interest and turn it into a PBL project, even for our youngest learners.

Even though the project is over and we’ve moved on, my class still loves to read the books Farmer Jason wrote and talk about tasting the different foods — especially when they see them in their lunchbox. I hope they learn not to be afraid to try new things, whether it’s tasting something new or sharing their ideas with others.

Leigh Darby is a veteran teacher of over 20 years in early childhood education. For the past three years, she has taught a STEM Innovation PBL class at The Preschool in Atlanta Georgia. She is passionate about teaching our youngest learners . She loves PBL as it fosters their curiosity and lets them explore their world around them.

From Farm to Farmer’s Market: A STEM Project for Two- and Three- Year Olds