Bok Adventures
Available courses: Discovery and Nature Play | Insects Up Close | Math in the Gardens | Growing Writers | Roots & Shoots | Building Character | Community Based Instruction | Splash! Grant Freshwater Education
Discovery and Nature Play
Grades: PK-1
Days: Monday-Friday
Times: 9am-4pm
Duration: 2 hours
Cost: $7 per child
Number of Students: 15 minimum
Bring your students to Hammock Hollow Children’s Garden where our educators will engage them in a variety of fun activities as they learn, explore, and create. Discovery and Nature Play adventures include one hour of free nature play with extra-staffed activities in Hammock Hollow and a one hour round trip through the Gardens to the Singing Tower to feed the koi.
Choose the focus of your Discovery and Nature Play adventure:
- Standards: SC.K.L.14.3, SC.K.N.1.1, SC.K.N.1.2, SC.K.N.1.5, SC.1.E.5.3, SC.1.E.6.1, SC.1.L.14.1, SC.1.L.17.1
- Standards: MAFS.K.CC.3.6, MAFS.K.G.1.2, MAFS.K.G.2.5, MAFS.K.MD.1.2, MAFS.K.MD.1.a, MAFS.1.G.1.1, MAFS.1.G.1.3, MAFS.1.MD.1.1, MAFS.1.MD.1.a, MAFS.1.MD.3.4
- Standards: SC.K.L.14.3, SC.K.N.1.2, SC.K.N.1.4, SC.K.N.1.5, SC.1.E.5.3, SC.1.E.6.1, SC.1.L.14.1, SC.1.L.14.2, SC.1.L.17.1
- Standards: SC.K.L.14.3, SC.K.N.1.1, SC.K.N.1.2, SC.K.N.1.3, SC.K.N.1.5, SC.1.E.6.1, SC.1.E.6.2, SC.1.L.17.1, SC.1.N.1.3,
Hammock Hollow has fountains and a water pump, so your students will get wet if you let them!
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Insects Up Close
Grades: 2-5
Days: Monday-Friday
Times: 9am-4pm
Duration: 2 hours
Cost: $7 per child
Number of Students: 15 minimum
Bok Tower Gardens is home to a myriad of insect species; beautiful butterflies, busy bees, and lovely ladybugs, just to name a few. Insect lovers, and those who find them a bit icky, will have fun on this adventure, digging through compost, hunting for insects in their habitat, and learning about insect life cycles. Students will get to act out the relationship between insect pollinators and plants, and understand our dependence on insect pollinators for our food. Your students will also enjoy a sweet honey tasting of different Florida honeys or “eat like insects” while learning about insect mouth adaptations!
Standards:
Science: SC.2.E.6.2, SC.2.L.16.1, SC.2.L.17.1, SC.2.L.17.2, SC.3.L.14.1, SC.3.N.1.3, SC.3.N.3.2, SC.4.E.6.5, SC.4.L.16.1, SC.4.L.16.4, SC.4.L.17.2, SC.4.L.17.3, SC.4.N.1.6, SC.4.N.3.1, SC.5.L.14.2, SC.5.L.17.1
Math: MAFS.2.MD.4.10
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Math in the Gardens
Grades: 2-5
Days: Monday-Friday
Times: 9am-4pm
Duration: 2 hours
Cost: $7 per child
Number of Students: 15 minimum
Math is everywhere at Bok Tower Gardens, from the large round head of a sunflower to the grand landscape design of Fredrick Law Olmsted, Jr. Your students will delight in the beauty of math as they work together to find and compare hidden shapes and patterns in nature, measure angles, perimeter, area, and volume, and find lines of symmetry in natural objects. They can even go inside a coordinate grid on our lawn and explore beginning fractions in our Outdoor Kitchen!
Standards:
Math: MAFS.2.G.1.1, MAFS.2.G.1.3, MAFS.2.MD.1.1, MAFS.2.NBT.2.6, MAFS.2.OA.3.3, MAFS.3.G.1.1, MAFS.3.G.1.2, MAFS.3.MD.3.6, MAFS.3.MD.4.8, MAFS.4.G.1.1, MAFS.4.G.1.3, MAFS.4.MD.1.3, MAFS.4.MD.3.6, MAFS.4.OA.3.5, MAFS.5.G.1.1, MAFS.5.G.1.2, MAFS.5.MD.3.4
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Growing Writers
Grades: 4-5
Days: Monday-Friday
Times: 9am-4pm
Duration: 2 hours
Cost: $7 per child
Number of Students: 15 minimum
Use the beautiful natural setting of Bok Tower Gardens and the extraordinary story of Edward Bok to inspire your students’ writing! Students will use their five senses to experience salsa and chips, and then explore the gardens, collecting observations that will be fashioned into metaphors and similes, their own nature poem, and a unique perspective writing. Students will consider how they can “make you the world a bit better or more beautiful because you have lived in it”, as Edward Bok’s grandmother said to him.
Standards:
Language Arts: LAFS.4.L.1.2, LAFS.4.L.2.3, LAFS.4.L.3.5, LAFS.4.RL.1.2, LAFS.4.SL.2.4, LAFS.4.W.4.10, LAFS.5.L.1.2, LAFS.5.L.2.3, LAFS.5.L.3.5, LAFS.5.RL.1.2, LAFS.5.SL.2.4, LAFS.5.W.4.10
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Roots & Shoots
Grades: 2-5
Days: Monday-Friday
Times: 9am-4pm
Duration: 2 hours
Cost: $7 per child
Number of Students: 15 minimum
What better place to learn about plants than a garden? Through hands-on activities and games, your students will discover what plants need to make their own food, experience the plant diversity in our Gardens, learn about the life cycle of a flowering plant, and understand how plants spread their seeds into the environment. There is even a stop in our Outdoor Kitchen to make the connection between different plant parts, their functions, and the food that we eat.
Standards:
Science: SC.2.L.16.1, SC.2.L.17.2, SC.3.L.14.1, SC.3.L.15.2, SC.3.L.17.2,SC.3.N.1.3, SC.4.L.16.1, SC.4.L.17.2, SC.4.L.17.3, SC.4.L.17.4, SC.4.N.1.6, SC.5.L.14.2, SC.5.L.17.1
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Building Character
Grades: 2-12
Days: Monday-Friday
Times: 9am-4pm
Duration: 2 hours
Cost: $7 per child
Number of Students: 15 minimum
Students will learn teamwork, communication, and courtesy as they work together to solve challenges during this nature-based teambuilding program. Activities and cooperative games encourage everyone to work to get to know each other, appreciate the differences in people, create positive relationships, practice leadership skills, understand group dynamics, and laugh together. And, your students will learn how teamwork was crucial in building the Tower as they feed the koi.
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Community Based Instruction
Grades: 6-12 & Transition Programs
Days: Monday-Friday
Times: 9am-4pm
Duration: 2 hours
Cost: $7 per child
Number of Students: 10 minimum
Bring your students to beautiful Bok Tower Gardens for their next community-based instruction field trip. Your students will learn firsthand from Bok Tower employees what it takes to keep the Gardens running smoothly, from the Café to the Gift Shop to the Visitor Center. Walking to the Singing Tower to feed the koi, viewing our short video about Bok Tower Gardens’ history, and visiting our museum is included in this adventure. We would love to be a part of your students’ community experiences!
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Splash! Grant Freshwater Education
Grades: 2-5
Days: Monday-Friday
Times: 9am-4pm
Duration: 2 hours
Cost: $7 per child
Number of Students: 15 minimum
Bok Tower Gardens is an approved freshwater education field trip site for the Splash! Grant program administered by the Southwest Florida Water Management District. Your students will explore sources of freshwater in the Garden during a water walk, play a water cycle game, test water quality in our moat by the Singing Tower, and dip net in Pinewood Pond to learn about a pond ecosystem.
Standards:
Science: SC.2.L.17.1, SC.2.L.17.2, SC.2.P.8.4, SC.3.N.1.3, SC.3.N.3.2, SC.3.N.3.3, SC.3.P.9.1, SC.4.E.6.6, SC.4.N.1.6, SC.4.N.3.1, SC.5.E.7.1, SC.5.E.7.2
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Other Education Options
Available courses: Service Learning Opportunities | Earth Day Festival | Self-Guided Tours
Service Learning Opportunities
Grades: 6-College
Days: Varies depending on the project
Times: Varies depending on the project
Duration: Varies depending on the project
Cost: No cost
Number of Students: Varies depending on the project
Service learning is a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities.
Is your group in need of Community Service Hours?
Service learning projects at Bok Tower Gardens are available as a custom-created experience. Opportunities include:
- Natural Lands: marking and/or pulling out invasive plant species, collecting seeds, and garbage removal.
- Gardens: mulching plant beds and paths, and working in the raised beds in the Edible Garden.
- Greenhouse: weeding, washing pots, sweeping leaves, and potting plants.
Teachers can contact Becky Mallison, Education Manager at 863.734.1221 or bmallison@boktower.org to begin the conversation for their student groups.
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Self-Guided Tours
Grades: K-College
Days: Sunday-Saturday
Times: 9am-6pm
Duration: None
Cost: $5 per child
Number of Students: No class size limit
Plan your own adventure and give your students the key to the Gardens. Bok Tower Gardens is a great place for your students to enjoy their independence and explore safely. Experience excitement when students take charge of their learning in the classic and refined gardens.
Teachers, scouts, church groups, and colleges are welcome to bring students for self-guided visits. Our staff will orient the group, then the group is welcome to tour the Gardens at their own pace. Your Garden activities must be approved by the Education Manager prior to the tour.
Garden Adventure Guide
The Garden Adventure Guide is a printed activity guide available for all our young visitors. It includes a map to the rubbing tile posts and Gardens, as well as a Singing Tower jumble puzzle and other activities to deepen families’ and children’s engagement in the natural world. Garden Adventure Guides and rubbing paper for the tile posts may be requested by teachers when they book a Self-Guided Gardens Explorations field trip for their students, or are available at the Information Desk in the Visitor Center.
Bok Adventure Guide
Activities and Coloring Pages
Exercise your creativity and learn more about Bok Tower Gardens with fun activities and coloring pages!
Download the activities and coloring sheets by clicking on the links.
Garden Tile Coloring Pages
Word Searches
Crossword Puzzles
Sudoku Picture Puzzle
Word Jumble
Memory Card Game
Bok Playing Cards
* Group rate cannot be combined with memberships and passes. All group reservations must be paid in one payment to qualify for group rate. Payments are final and non-refundable. Receive one (1) free adult per five (5) students, additional adults are $10 each.