Reading a garden - A word garden?

Sound intriguing?  Why, yes!  Check out the article from Educational Leadership - http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/jun12/vol69/num09/Reading-a-Garden.aspx#wordgarden.  The article talks about how gardening with students can lead to stronger reading, connect knowledge about plants, animals, and ecosystems with personal experience and as a natural way to develop an understanding of science.  The article gives some example approaches to follow:  Choose books with gardening as a key element (there is a list of books at the end of the article); Teach nonfiction features; and Create garden signs.  The article focus on the efforts at Saint Michael's College in Vermont.  Check out the video at the end on the "word garden".  You can also check out the website The Teaching Gardens of Saint Michael's at http://academics.smcvt.edu/gardens/Home.html