Over the weekend, several classes won blue ribbons at the Fall Fair for their garden art projects! Many students participated with their families, too.
Back at school on "Moon"-day, we talked about Equinox, the Harvest Moon, and how these events are celebrated by different groups all around the earth. It's only twice a year that the whole world shares the same day length and night, along with a giant full moon! These topics, along with the changing season, will be featured for all the classes this week.
Then, the kindergarteners & grade 1 classes picked pumpkins and named them and explored the garden.
Tuesday, the other grade 1-2 class harvested potatoes that they'd planted in old burlap sacks at the end of last year. They even found a hot-pink heart-shaped potato! They had a lot of fun washing them and playing around the garden - we'll fry them up at next week's class-time.
The grade 2 class shared some applesauce-cinnamon fruit leather they'd made in class. Yum! Then, they plucked their purple popcorn off the cobs, so that they can further dry it in the dehydrator. The big question is -- will it pop purple?
They got to navigate a tiny pumpkin obstacle course on their way out!
Wednesday, the grades 3-4, who are a very physical bunch, cleared weeds from a section of the garden where the Farmland Trust has offered to provide food forest plants (trees, shrubs, and herbs) for a special hazelnut grove, berry and herb planting. Some of these blackberry roots went deep--almost all the way to China (where they're celebrating the Lunar Festival!). We also read the story of Demeter, Persephone, and Hades, to learn more about how mythology can describe the seasonal transitions, like the equinox this week. These grades are studying planetary movements and seasons. Some students found wood bugs, centipedes, worms and spiders. And, we all tried some of the edible weeds like sour shephard's purse.
Thursday was early dismissal, so only one class had time for garden fun: Tanya's grades 5-6. We focused on their topic for the year: TREES. We made a living tree with our bodies, calling out "water up!" for xylem, or "sun makes sugar" for leaves. Then, they were re-introduced to schoolyard trees around the field through a mapping exercise, where they marked and labelled them. Most were surprised at how many have been planted over the past three years!
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