Hello! I hope vacation proved to be a positive one for all. As we gear up for the final weeks of school, it is only right that a proper update be shared about all the hard work that was done before the break.
Perhaps one of the most exciting bits of news is that our garden is underway! While we are certainly pushing the limit of mother nature planting this early, we also have a shorter growing season given the earlier final day of school. The good news, fingers crossed, is that our garden is located in a super sunny spot so when the rain settles down we will see some great growth.
Below you'll find a snapshot of the planning and hard work that has already gone into our garden's opening day. We laid our salt marsh hay path (thank you to Drew and his mom for picking that up for us and delivering it to the garden), and we did some initial configuring for how our seeds would be planted. We learned about what plants are best for our garden given the constraints of size, sun vs. shade, speed of growth and level of care.
The children worked together to study each seed packet to determine the approximate days for germination and how long each plant takes until fully mature. We broke up into gardening teams where the children helped prep the planting stakes to mark the placement of the seeds. Finally, we bundled up and got to work - it was a chilly day but we are farmers and so we got out there and persevered!
Many thanks for the donations that have come in to help support our garden fund. I purchase new seeds each year, as well as other consumables like the planting stakes and fertilizer. This year, I also had to purchase a new spray nozzle for our hose. Additionally, the extra funds will help when it comes time for Salad Day later in June. So thank you!
And... thanks to the parents who came to lend a helping hand. We did our best to capture pictures of each of the gardening teams, but some got more coverage than others. Fear not, there will be lots more to share in the days ahead.
Take a peek at our efforts...
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| Laying our salt marsh hay path |
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| Ready set go! |
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| A job well done! |
Before all THAT... we did some strategizing and planning...
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| Garden planning |
After planting we sat down and determined that our total number of growing days is 66 which means the countdown is on. The children will use their Garden Journals to keep track of the growing days, record what was planted and how things are moving along. We will also learn how to track the weather over a 10-Day forecast with hopes for a balanced combo of sun and rain.
One thing I've made clear is that the garden belongs to all of us so feel free to pop by after school or on the weekends to see how things are shaping up!
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Prior to all the garden excitement, the children enjoyed exploring more about maps and the globe by connecting live with Mrs. Oppel's son-in-law Wayne, who lives over in Dublin. We studied the map ahead of time and came up with a bunch of questions for Wayne before our scheduled meet-up. We learned some interesting facts about Ireland, and also some different ways of saying things. Jumper = sweater and track-suit pants = sweatpants, just to name a couple of unique ones. But, the thing most interesting and curious to the children was the elusive nature of the leprechaun. Even Wayne has yet to see or catch one :)!
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The early spring days of April wouldn't have been complete without a visit from Johnny The K, who has been coming to Memorial for many years. Johnny pairs his love of music with important messages about kindness, compassion, friendship, cooperation and quite simply how to be the best human you can be. Our hearts were surely full!
