Friday, May 30, 2014

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.