Thanks to the wonderful volunteers who came out to work in the garden this Saturday!!

We cleared the perimeter of weeds to get the border ready for a pumpkin patch! It seems a little early but it’s not, those babies take a while to grow. We also leveled out the northeast section of the garden as it’s the perfect place for a stump circle. A shady nook for the students to hang out during recess.

And finally, we made our bed signs! They are a gorgeous, bright red that will make the garden even more cheerful. It was a Saturday well spent.

Wiggle it just a little bit!

We took the 6 parts of the plant and turned it into a pretty cool dance for our Kindergarten classes. After crouching down, into tiny little balls, the kids whispered, “seeeeeds.”  Wiggling their fingers as roots their voices got a little deeper and they said, “roooooots.”

We shifted our weight from side to side, and slowly began our rise to the top. Standing up as straight as can be the kids puffed their chests up, pushing toward the sky and sang, “Stemmmmm.” They grew as tall as they could and then let their leaves grow from their arms, shrugging their shoulders, they squealed, “leaaaavvveeees.”  Flowers ready to blossom, they lifted their arms and raised over their heads, locked their hands together and looking like wobbly ballerina’s they announced how beautiful they were and said proudly, “fllooowwwwer.” And finally, they brought their arms down, turned their hands forward, in front of tummies, to show their big beautiful fruits and in as deep as kindergartner little voices get, they chanted, “fruit. fruit. fruit.”

After all that dancing, we worked up quite an appetite thus needed to explore the garden for these different parts of the plant to taste. We roamed from bed to bed, exploring the different parts of the plant, we reenacted our dance moves. We ate the seeds of snap peas, the roots of a carrot, the stems of broccoli, the leaves a mint, the flowers of cauliflower and finished off our tasting with the juiciest of oranges – a perfect homage to fruit!

6 moves. 6 parts. 6 delicious flavors. I think the parts of the plant will be forever locked in those kindergartner’s minds for.ever.

There is a time in every third graders life where they ought to learn about the wonders of the red wriggler worm. This may be by far, my most favorite lesson, and this may be a result of my worm obsession but I LOVE teaching third grader’s  about our best garden friend, the red wiggly worm.

Shortly after taking their seats, the third graders sit patiently. Little do they know that in just moments, they will be adopting their very own red wiggly worm! But first and foremost, the worm’s background info. We talk about where these special worms live, what they like to eat, who their best friends are (Rollie pollies!!! Ants! Slugs! They hang out with centipedes but they don’t really like each they just hang in the same circle of dirt.) The students get this background info and just to solidify the knowledge we learn a very simple rap song – tuned to the ever-so-amazing, “Who Let the Dogs Out.” I wish I could take credit for this but, I can not. Alright. Ready?

Here’s the rap:

“Who makes the compost?!”

“Deee.Come.Pose.Ersss.”

“Who makes the compost?!”

“Deee.Come.Pose.Ersss.”

Then we review who the decomposers are and shortly after, the kids go to our worm bin and gently collect their worm. They put them in our nifty magnifying cases and take a moment to observe their slimy new friend. I can’t tell you how much joy these kids get from observing worms. Some of the kids are squeamish, but I can tell they are super pumped. Once everyone settles, they are given the task to think about who their worm is and write a Worm Biography. They can get creative when it comes to names and locations but are encouraged to use glorious adjectives in their sentences while sticking to the facts.