9/12-12/16

These past few weeks we have been working on planning our spring garden. Students have been thinking long and hard about exactly what it is they would like to see growing in their school garden.
We received a seed saving tool kit from Seed Savers Exchange so we have been very excited looking through all of the wonderful heirloom varieties. Students are beginning to understand that a successful garden takes lots of planning. So far we are looking forward to a "Hunger Games" themed bed! Stay tuned!

Students had a chance to look through seed packets and diplomatically decide which plants they would like to see in the garden (there are many big ideas!).                                   

 

We read a book called Compost Stew. It gives us some great ideas about what can and can't go on the compost heap. This will serve us well when we begin composting in the Spring.

 

Finally we watched two videos. The first was about reducing our waste and recycling so that we are more responsible with our resources.

http://youtu.be/65AMXyzEhd8

The other link reminds us that little things can also have big impacts. Have you ever forgotten your reusable bags at home when you're at the grocery store? This video offers some useful reminders so that you won't forget!

http://youtu.be/7vMNWz4B2wQ

12/2/14
This week in garden club, we used mostly old materials (pasta/bell jars, old toys and figures) and made snowglobes, but because it was giving Tuesday, there was a catch-students had to give them away!

To make a homemade snowglobe

1.Glue a toy to the lid (we used a hot glue gun)

2. Fill the jar with water

3. Add a drop of glycerin (optional)

4. Add glitter

5. Screw the lid on and shake!

 

We also began discussing plants, flowers and vegetables we would like to see in our school garden next Spring.

 

 

11/18-Turtle time!

This week in garden club students made pets to take home. Most of the supplies were lying around my house- potting soil, green plastic cups, googly eyes, glue, tempura washable paint and paper plates. I had some "chicks" that needed good homes, but you could also use broccoli seeds or any other that don't require a lot of space. After we made our pets, we built a little island for them. Students found this project to be a lot of fun! Names ranged from "Turbo" to "Sir Snaps-a-Lot" :)

                    

11/11/2014
There was no garden club this week, but in the coming months we will be working on ideas for fundraising, various crafts and composting. ISU Master Gardeners have kindly offered to provide us with a compost bin :)

11/5/14

This week in garden club, we started by reading the book "If you hold a seed," by Elly Mackay. It is a wonderfully illustrated book with a simple and honest message- take a seed, make a wish, plant that seed and wait. Then one day your wish may just come true. This book is tailored for slightly younger readers, but our 4th and 5th graders still benefited.

 

 

We played a garden game and had a brainstorming session about what we should include in the logo for our gardening t-shirts.

 

 

 

Riley had the great idea of coloring her thumb green to highlight what great gardeners Kenwood Elementary students are. It didn't take long until the whole class caught on!

 

10/28/14

This week we started with a little game called "Fruity". We set up garden categories (fruit/vegetable, animal/insect etc) then thought of a letter and students had to fill in the categories as quickly as possible and the first one done shouts "Fruity". Students really enjoyed the game and it and forced them to think hard for a little while :) Then we went to the garden and pulled out more plants and cleared away some leaves. We left some kale that was still producing so that we can add it to our compost pile.

I also found a great book for students aged 4-8. "Some Bugs" by Angela Diterlizzi and Brendan Wenzel is a humorous rhyming story about the different types of common bugs. The beautiful illustrations and simple language makes it a great read for this age range! Students will be excited to get out into their backyard and go exploring!

Two weeks ago we dedicated the class to those who have helped our garden flourish. We made treehouses that we will send out as a Thank you's.

10/21

This week we got our hands dirty and started cleaning up the garden beds. We gently pulled out our herb, pepper, tomato and some of the kale beds. We left some plants that were still healthy, but plan on removing everything within the next few weeks.

When the first bed was weed free and everything was gone, we sprinkled some rye as a winter cover crop. This will help nourish our soil so that it will be rich with nutrients in the spring.

I found a book called "Local," by Douglas Gayeton. The picture below highlights exactly why it is important to teach children the importance of the food movement not only through classroom instruction, but also through doing.

 

 

9/30/2014

 

Hail the Kale! In honor of National Kale Day on October 1st, we learned about everything kale. Below is a recipe Haven's group made for kale chips. They are so delicious and taste like potato chips. The most important part of the recipe is to make sure you dry the kale thoroughly so that it doesn't get soggy in the oven.

 

 

We split into groups and learned all about kale. Per calorie, kale has more iron than beef, more calcuim than milk and 10% more vitamin C than spinach! We wrote stories and poems

 



 and  even made art with kale. Some of the work included a fish, a bunny and Pacman (which had nothing to do with kale, but was cute).



9/23/14
Today we celebrated the First Day of Autumn and Banned Books week. We started off with a few poems from Shel Silverstein's "A light in the Attic". The book was banned by an elementary school in Florida because of the poem "Little Abigail and the beautiful pony". The decision was later overturned.

Last week we talked about composting, so for a treat and to showcase what beautiful soil should look like, we made the dessert "worms in dirt". Take chocolate pudding and put it in a cup, put a gummy worm or two on top then scoop out the middle of an oreo and crumble up the cookie to make the topsoil. Fun to make and fun to eat! We were busy making and eating ours so forgot to take pictures, but here is what they look like-

source http://www.pinterest.com/pin/240238961345752870/

 

 

As the physical gardening season will be winding down, though we will still be outside sometimes, I have been looking for crafts the students will be able to do inside. In honor of the first day of Fall, we headed outside to make one of the easiest crafts around (found on the website dirtgirlworld). Nature bracelets requite tape (any size) and stuff you find in nature (nuts, seeds berries, small leaves, flowers etc). Then, let out your inner artist!

 



 

Students enjoyed pottering around the garden, picking herbs, flowers and vegetables

 and we all enjoyed looking at all of the beautiful Iowa fall colors around the school :)

 

 

 

For more information on crafts with nature check out http://dirtgirlworld.com/



I posted a link for anyone interested in starting their own compost pile- http://www.wikihow.com/Compost

I had a few parents ask about links for saving tomato seeds. Here is a good one I found- http://www.mastergardeners.org/pdf/import/SGM/files/Saving_Tomato_Seeds.pdf

Garden Club 9/16
Scott Koepke from New Pioneer Co-op came to give a presentation on composting. Students learned about "browns and greens," looked at some red wriggler worms, then checked out soil under the microscope and finished with a story about a community garden. Thanks so much to Scott for coming and teaching our students about how to close the food loop!

9/9/2014- Seed Saving

This week was the start of garden club and it was great to see some new faces in the class. The topic this week was saving seeds. We talked about why it was important to save seeds and we went out into the garden and identified how different plants produced different seeds. Basil will "bolt" and their seeds will be encased in a long flower type structure. We also picked some tomatoes and peppers and started the beginning process of saving their seeds. For tomatoes, first we scooped out all the seeds, then we covered the seeds with water. In 5-7 days a mold will appear. We will take it off and rinse the seeds to get rid of the gel covering, then let them dry out. Voila! New seeds for next season!

 

 

 

Some of the students from last year showed the new students some of the produce growing in the garden. Mya and Katty got to check out some kale and the girls had a hot pepper contest, although we're not sure anyone was a winner!

 

 







 For more information on saving seeds, go to http://www.extension.umn.edu/garden/yard-garden/vegetables/saving-vegetable-seeds/



At the end of the Summer, the garden was still in full bloom. We donated much of the produce to families attending the free lunch program at Kenwood, as well as community members.

 

Before school started we picked some produce from the garden and provided a salad to staff that included various kale and lettuce varieties,

 

 

 edible flowers-narsturtium and borage

 

 

 and cucumbers and bell peppers

 

 

Garden club will start-up again for 4th and 5th graders on September 9th.

I left for vacation and while I was gone garden students, their families and volunteers helped to water and weed the garden. In just two weeks, the garden came to life!
We have cucumbers growing, edible borage (purple flower,) our sunflowers are getting huge (in the back,) kale, basil, peppers, corn, beans, squash,

broccoli, edible narturtium, leaf lettuce, and our tomatoes are coming along nicely :)

Week 11-6/10- This was the last week of garden club. Students picked some basil, kale and lettuce to take home and make salad for their families. Distribution over the Summer will go first to Kenwood families, the neighbors and if all produce is not gone, we plan on donating it. We are also planning a dinner for families and volunteers later in the Summer to celebrate the garden and the students. Stay tuned :)

Friday was our school's Carnival. We set up a little table and made lemonade with lemon basil from our garden and put out samples of dill, cilantro, lettuce and kale for students to try. Principal Brandon tried our lemonade and said it was pretty delicious :)

                                                                   

Week 10-6/3

This week in garden club Abby and Mykenzie thinned out our broccoli

Haven finished working on our sign for our table at Carnival

 

 

Landon, Rachel and Izzy took some barettes we had lying around and gave them new life with fun felt pictures. This Friday is Carnival and we plan on selling any produce we have ready and the barettes. The proceeds will go to the PTA.

 

 

Lastly, we thought of a new fun way to fill up the rainbarrel-Watering Can relays!!!

 

 

 

 

Kenwood Elementary Garden-Spring 2014

Week 9-5/27
We plan to sell lemonade and any produce available at our school Carnival, so this week we made posters for our table and then headed to the garden and harvested our first ever crop-Radishes! Izzy thought they were a little spicy, Haven asked if we had I brought some ranch :) Students took some home and the rest were left for teachers and students at school.

Week 8-5/20
Made videos about kale, cilantro and beets. Watered and weeded the garden

Week 7- 5/13
This week we learned about companion planting and more specifically, the tradition of The Three Sisters planting. In traditional Native American culture corn, squash and beans are planted to form "The Three Sisters". These three vegetables were grown in many Native American cultures, but originated with the Haudenosaunee (this was tricky for our fourth and 5th graders to say). In the Haudenosaunee story of creation, the Three sisters originated on Turtle Island and were considered the life sustainers.The three plants have a symbiotic (mutually beneficial) relationship with one another. The bacteria that occur naturally in beans contain nitrogen from the air and convert it into nitrates and fertilize the corn and squash; corn stalks help support the beans and squash provides ground covers between the corn and beans, preventing weeds from growing and increasing the amount of rain that soaks into the ground. Squash and beans were planted today.

   

Our warm crop workday was scheduled for May 19th. Several students and parents showed up and we planted tomatoes, bell peppers, hot peppers and cucumbers.

Week 6-5/6

Students were put in groups of three. I then gave each group seeds. Students decorated a spoon with the type of seed they had, then followed the seed packet depth of planting and space of planting guide. We finished putting in the soaker hose and watered the seeds in. Red lettuce, mesclun, broccoli, sweet basil, thai basil and lime basil were planted. Corn was planted 5/9

            

                        Adam planted a lettuce mix, Abby planted broccoli and Haven planted basil

                                            

                                          Landon was happy with a sweeping brush :)

Week 5-4/29
We acted out a short play about pollination. Some students were "flowers" and held pens up in the air (their hands were the anthers and stamens). Other students were the bees and would fly around picking up pens and dropping them on other flowers. We described the parts of a plant (source ISU extension). Soil was too wet to plant anything, so because of the consistency was mainly clay, we made clay art instead. Sculptures included an owl by Haven, a weiner dog by Izzy and a flower by Izzy. Such creativity!

                                            

Week 4-4/22
We went out into the garden and students painted the rainbarrel and measured the beds. We finished adding some mulch and added some peat and manure. Radishes, kale, narsturtium, sunflowers and lettuce were planted.



Week 3- 4/15

Seed to Table- Students drew diagrams and presented to the class the processes involved in getting a seed to the table (from soil preparation to washing dishes). Activity included scrambling the steps and having the students put them in the correct order, then presenting them to the class.

Our cool crop workday was set for the 17th of April. Parents, members of the Kenwood Neighborhood Association and volunteers came to help with clearing the beds, removing mulch, adding compost and setting up the rainbarrel. The Kenwood Neighborhood Association kindly donated a tool chest and Christ Episcopal donated plant markers.

                                   

Tiffany, Mykenzie, Izzy and Rachel checking out our new tool chest!

                                 

                                      Students and volunteers dug in from the get go!

                                         

                     Josh (a kindergardener) was very excited to help out and get his hands dirty :)

                                        

                            The mulch was so much heavier than it looks in the picture!

                                       

               Students enjoyed making plant markers for the vegetables we were going to plant.

                                

Taking the compost from the truck onto the beds may have been the students favorite activity of the day.

  

                             

Volunteers also enjoyed making art (probably more than they would care to admit!).

Week 2-4/8

We discussed the importance of soil in the garden We asked what is soil? What does it consist of? (weathered rock, organic matter, water and air). Students tested for Nitrogen, Potassium, pH and Potash.

 

                           

 Results- Nitrogen deficient, Potassium adequate, pH slightly acidic (6-6.5), Potash adequate. We then knew how our soil needed to be amended.



First Week of Garden Club 4/1

Students introduced themselves and we discussed the need for a school garden, why students felt they needed a school garden. Answers included "to know where our food comes from," and "to learn about gardening". We also discussed possible logos for garden club t-shirts.

  

Introduction

Back in October 2013, I talked with Principal Brandon about starting a school garden for Kenwood Elementary. Cedar Rapids had several elementary schools that already had school gardens and so I toured Garfield, Harrison and also the surrounding Iowa City Children's garden which were all coming to the end of their harvesting season.

With approval from the PTA and Principal Brandon, I started looking for funding and we started to plan for a Spring 2014 garden!
The main goals of the garden were to connect students to their food, provide an outdoor classroom to teach basic gardening and conservation (recycling and upcycling) principles and connect curriculum to the garden using lesson plans from the Edible schoolyard and Iowa State University Extension.
We secured a small grant through New Pi Co-op and recieved gift vouchers from the Home Depot. That was enough to get us started for the first season!
When researching this topic, I found great resources from
Linn County Master Gardeners http://www.extension.iastate.edu/linn/content/linn-county-master-gardeners-speakers-bureau
NewPi Program Soilmates http://www.newpi.coop/AboutUs/NewPiSoilmates.aspx,
The Edible Schoolyard http://edibleschoolyard.org/, 
Matthew25 http://www.hub25.org/programs/cultivate-hope/

The garden plot measured around 12.5ft by 18.5ft. Underneath the snow was plastic sheeting from previous plantings of perennials that needed to be removed and perennials that would have to be relocated.

The location for our garden was partly shaded, so the first year I decided I would try some vegetables that required full sun and see what happened. I decided to go with mainly leafy vegetables.

For ease of access, I decided to to split the beds up and make 2ft paths between so that the students would be able to plant, weed and harvest easily.

A small committee was formed with parents, a participant from a local church group already helping with an Operation Backpack program and the Kenwood Neighborhood Association.

In January we planned what to plant and in March we started some seedlings at home. Some students took a plant pot, growing medium and seeds. They were asked to keep the seeds warm and moist and then, when they germinated, they were asked to put them under a glow light or in the sunniest window they had.

Above we have sunflowers growing and to the right, kale seedlings. Students had fun starting seeds at home and when the time came to plant them, some did not want to bring them back to school.

When the soil became workable, I went out and did a soil analysis. We were able to test any nutrient deficiecies in the soil, so we could amend accordingly. Students repeated this in garden class later on.

Garden club was started on April 1st. Nine students signed up from 4th and 5th grade and garden club was on every Tuesday 3.45pm-4.45pm.