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Calvert – Seedlings with Kindergarten

April 3, 2016 | Jeff Mailes | ,
Calvert - March 18, 2016 - 1 of 2

Hello Garden Friends,

Last week at Calvert the kindergarteners and I started tomato, corn, and pumpkin seeds. I thought this activity would be perfect considering they will be gone on spring break and a field trip for the next two weeks. The next time they come visit the garden they will be greeted by their new baby plants!

It took nearly all class to explain all of the details associated with the task – how high to fill the containers with soil, how deep to put the seed, how many seeds per hole… and so on. The best part of the activity was placing the babies in the greenhouse and watered the garden using “magic.” Kindergarteners are still young enough to believe, and explaining how an automatic irrigation system works would go way over their heads.. so magic it is!! Together we stretched our arms out in front of us – reaching towards our plants and wiggling our fingers with magical energy. In a call in response sort of fashion I had the students repeat after me. “Seeds come up from the ground, water fall down from the sky.” While the students were busy chanting I triggered the manual setting on our electronic controller and – PRESTO – just like magic the students got to see their seeds get watered in. SO fun!

Until next week!

-Jeff

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Jeff Mailes

Jeff Mailes is a garden designer and environmental educator working out of Woodland Hills, CA. A Los Angeles County Master Gardener and UC Davis Alumni, Jeff earned his B.S. in Environmental Resource Science in 2012 and has been growing edibles and natives for the past 6 years. Jeff's passion for plants and garden education has led him to school gardens from Los Angeles to Sacramento and all the way up to Portland, Oregon. Now familiar with ecosystems across the West Coast, Jeff has settled back home and works to bring people together over food and inspire the next generation of earth stewards to leave it better than they found it. When not writing about himself in the third person, Jeff enjoys singing with his guitar, going on camping and hiking excursions, and tossing a frisbee around with his friends.

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