When a kid steps on a plant or plucks a vegetable before it’s ripe, Lisa Coons just smiles.

After all, these 2 1⁄2- to 5-year-old children are walking, breathing learning machines.

As the teacher of a new Sprouts Pre-school Gardening class at the Mankato Good Counsel Community Gardens, Coons encourages youngsters to dig, play, run and learn by getting their hands dirty.

The class is in a special area called the Kids’ Peace Garden, which is stocked with a plastic table set, various plants and flowers, wood-chip paths, and a wire cage and teepee that’ll eventually be covered with bean plants — producing cool shade for kids to play and hide under.

“It’s a place for kids to get experience and get their hands in the dirt gardening,” Coons said. “This is a play space.”

The community garden is part of the Center for Earth Spirituality and Rural Ministry, a branch of the School Sisters of Notre Dame Mankato Province on Good Counsel hill.

The large garden space is normally used by nuns — who donate many of the crops to charity in the fall — and members of the community who rent space to grow their favorite vegetables and plants.

With the addition of the Kids’ Peace Garden, however, garden coordinator Coons began sparking gardening interest among kids in elementary school, and this summer she decided to target even younger tots.

Parents accompany their children to the sprouts sessions scheduled for 10 a.m. every Wednesday morning through the summer. Participants aren’t required to sign up for the free class.

“Just show up,” Coons said.

Sprouts class doesn’t have any specific structure, but Coons tries to make it leisurely and fun.

On a recent Wednesday, she started class by sitting in a semi-circle with tots in the loft of the Good Counsel barn. Students and parents participated in a gardening sing along and read the book “The Carrot Seed” out loud.

Toddlers then grabbed watering cans and raced outside to plant bean seeds. Kids filled their buckets at a nearby fountain and eagerly watered plants around the garden.

Before ending class, each student marked a paper plate with different colored markers. Coons asked them to locate items in the garden with a similar color.

Coons’ goal is not to turn youngsters into master gardeners— although that wouldn’t be all bad, she said — but to get youngsters outdoors to experience nature and learn a bit along the way.