With the official first day of Spring behind us, we have many exciting things happening in the classroom.
-Our seedlings are growing strong indoors. We have planted over 31 different types of plants from herbs to eggplant. -Raised beds were built, with the detailed help and support of the high school Ag classes. -Diagrams have been drawn in detail and area and perimeter as been reviewed using our garden beds. -Real-life multiplication was put to work as we organized our seed cells and grow cell trays. -Seedling observations and journal writing are on our daily list of tasks. -The excitement and love for our garden area is growing, greatly as each day passes. -Oh, and our worms are doing GREAT! Things got a little stinky, and possibly overfed, just before spring break. But our worm population (over 1,000 by now) did their jobs and did them well. We returned to a lovely worm bag that was odor free. Yipee!
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Our third graders have been hard at work with their Learning Lab Garden. Students harvested brussel sprouts this week, prepared their indoor vermicomposting bin, finished their trench composting in the garden, and are beginning to plan out their spring garden. They have also completed their CoCoRaHS training to accurately collect and measure precipitation. The data collected from our official CoCoRaHS station will be used by scientists and researchers.
Don’t let the fun stuff fool you, we are hitting on an abundance of science TEKS as well as math and reading TEKS through measurements, data collection, multiplication, division, informational text, researching skills, informational writing, vocabulary and so much more! We are having so much F•U•N in third grade! As we prepare for Christmas break students harvested a few veggies. Broccolli and cheddar cauliflower were huge hits, the kids loved their flavor and were absolutely ecstatic about bringing them home to their families. The beets were a favorite to harvest; however, they were not a hit with our third grade taste buds. We refused to let them go to waste. We used Mrs. Ellis' juicer and used the beet juice to tye-dye fun bandanas in the classroom. This was a great craft and was an example of a creative use of veggies. We hope everyone enjoys their time at home over the holiday break. Merry Christmas, see ya next year!
The air is crisp and cool today, it sends an unexpected chill down your spine. While I began to adjust to the cooler temperature in the garden this afternoon, my heart and soul were immediately warmed by the excitement, chants, and surprised chatter at the growth of the garden. Our carrot tops have grown immensely, there are baby brussel sprouts growing, we have blooms on the peas, and we now have large cauliflower and broccoli crowns visible. The kids were ecstatic!! They each chose a plant and made their own descriptive video to explain the growth and changes that their plant has made. Head over to our Woodson ISD facebook page to see the videos from this afternoon. I will add photos to the blog as soon as they are downloaded. Todays excitement, after Thanksgiving Break, embodies the reason behind our Learning Lab Garden Project.
Even after our first freeze on October 27, 2020, our garden plants are growing beautifully. We protected our raised beds and containers with tarps in hopes that they would make it through the freeze. On Thursday, October 29, 2020 we took off the tarps, while biting our nails, in hopes that our plants made it through. The plants seemed thankful for the warmth of the sunshine! You can see the growth in the photos above. Our broccoli has grown over 20 inches, our cabbage plants have a width of 26 inches and we can see little baby brussel sprouts starting on our brussel sprout plants. Our peas are finally taking to the trellis. Each time we enter the garden, the amazement and pride beams out of each child's face.
Ahhhh, it feels so nice to back back in the Learning Lab and back to our normal school routine. We had a big four days this week. As you can see in the photos, our garden is G-R-O-W-I-N-G! Below is a list of items we were able to check off of our list.
>Students received their gardening gloves and watering cans. >We stamped, addressed and mailed our handwritten updates and garden photos to our garden sponsors. >Swiss chard was harvested, eaten raw, and then sautéed with onions and garlic for a taste test. >Radishes, spinach and garlic chives were harvest and enjoyed raw...some with a side of ranch. >Mr. Adams, our superintendent, enjoyed a walk through the garden while the students eagerly explained each plant. >We started our seed library using recycled glass jars. We had an exciting week and we look forward to many more as we make our way through fall. Next up on the harvesting calendar, beets and peas! We are prepared to protect our plants from any upcoming light frosts to ensure a nice growing season. This week, for health and safety reasons, we learned from home. That did not stop our garden project. Mrs. Ellis recorded lessons in the garden so that students could continue to see the garden flourish. Online writing activities about the garden continued and measurements taken a few weeks ago compared to now provided a great math activity to track plant growth from home. After learning from home for six school days, we were all anxious to get back to our beautiful garden.
We did the bulk of our weekly work today. The pumpkin, pea, beet and collard seedlings were all moved outside and planted. When we walked into the classroom this morning, the pumpkin seeds had gone from absolutely no sign of germination to what you see in the photos above. The joy, excitement and wow factor on each students' face was absolutely priceless. We have a few pea plants that need to stay indoors for a few more days, but other than that our entire fall garden is in the ground.
Keaton and Corbyn mowed and everyone had a hand in filling low spots, adding soil to the arch and planting the seedlings. It is wonderful to witness everyone working together in the Learning Lab. The arch will stand in the center of the fence line we will one day have. In the classroom we have filled out growth charts as well as tracking charts that list days to germination, days to harvest, harvest dates, amount planted, and a space for amount harvested. We are writing about our garden in our writing station and students with sponsors are working on their first hand written letter update. Things are moving along smoothly. T- 17 days until radish harvest! They can't wait! Today was a HUGE day for our third graders. We were able to get all of our established plants into the garden. We planted, chives, swiss chard, brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, a variety of carrots, radishes, beets, broccoli, spinach, and a few pretty yellow flowers to use as decoration and natural bug deterrent.
Our county extension agent, Mrs. JerriAnn Shelly, stopped by for her monthly visit. She worked through a "Learn, Grow, Eat and Go" lesson with the students. They discussed the four things plants need, water, air, soil and sunlight, to grow. They also made fun gardening hats. These hats included representations for each of the four things that plants need. Today was a GREAT day!! |
Nicole Ellis
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