Garden Club

I want to start off with a HUGE thank you to Salisbury Greenhouse, Rob Sproule and the different members of Strathcona County for their generous and innovative offer to bring gardening into schools.  It is only their supportive backing that this project was born!

I really should have taken some photos of the 'before' but truth be told, this is a Garden Club which involves students from Grades One to Four and I do not have written permission from all of those parents to allow their children's photos to be on the blog.  I can show you the fruits (actually vegetables) of their labour!

These two raised planters were gifted to us through the program that I applied for last September.  I plan to apply again this year to add another two planters to the front of the school.  With one growing season under our belt, I can see how we could improve our plans, and allow for more crops to flourish.

I was so excited to see the peas!  Brought me right back to my own childhood and picking peas with my Baba on her farm!

Baba grew cauliflower, but I never have.  I thought that the children would love to see how the plant creates the flower that we eat in the middle!  I bet they will love cauliflower because of this.

I had been warned against growing zucchini or squash or pumpkins.  I knew why but again, this is about the children learning, appreciating and then exploring the world of vegetables, so I did not listen and here is a little pumpkin!

Our cucumber patch has not yet yielded, but there sure are a lot of blossoms!

I'm pretty happy with the beans!  I had been 'pinning' ideas onto my Pinterest board for Gardening and the trellis idea was one that I used.  It is bamboo poles and jute twine and is working perfectly!

We have six different pepper plants, each producing a different type of pepper.  I think this one is called a banana pepper and of course, the one below is a green pepper.

By the time the students return, the lettuce will probably have gone to seed, but that is part of the learning.  There are radishes in front.  Did you know that radishes will grow really, really big?  I didn't, probably because we used them when they were small in our salads.

This was just for fun and though it's not really how I imagined, we'll try again next year.  Those are scarlet runner beans running up along a teepee shape created from bamboo poles and netting.  The idea was to create a 'hide away' place.  Look inside!  The grass is probably 30 centimetres tall!  Wouldn't it be a great place to curl up and read a book?

In September, I am sure that the Garden Club is going to be so excited to see the vegetables that they started back in the spring.  They will have the opportunity to be part of the harvest and like the Little Red Hen, they will be able to enjoy what they worked hard to grow!

All done!

It's all over!  Grade Two will soon be a memory as these sweeties move onto Grade Three where their new teacher will become 'the best teacher in the whole world!"  They are ready for the change!

We spent Tuesday at the Ukrainian Village.  One of the things that makes this experience come alive is the leaders who present themselves as actual people from the era when Ukrainian settlers arrived in Canada, taking up the government on the promise of free land.

This guy was able to find his great grandparents on the commemoration board.  Neat!

Our group leader took us to the 

first kind of house the settlers would have built, one made of sod.

For some of the children, they came face to face (literally) with animals they had never seen in real life before, such as cows...

..pigs

("Their hair is scratchy")

sheep

and a couple of Clydesdale horses who pulled the cart we rode in.

Don't forget the chickens!

The children went to school, using slates and chalk to

work on Roman Numerals with

the strict headmaster, who asked the students to stand when they answered a question.

Was it fun?

Yes (and a bit tiring!)

When the countdown balloon was popped on Wednesday, it was time to draw with chalk!

Thursday's balloon was an ice cream party!

(First we had a full day of ice cream related work to complete.

So delicious, that they licked the bowl clean!

The room was emptied of all of the tables and chairs and shelves,

and it was time to give out the awards...

and report cards (which we already knew said they were going onto the next grade)

and a little present from the teacher.

September will come all too quickly!

Enjoy the summer.  Read and write and practise math so that you can do your best in Grade Three!

Investigation of the Bubble kind...

Inquiry requires opportunities to ask questions, observe and draw conclusions.

The students investigated two different questions using bubble mix, a summer staple!

Will a large bubble move faster than a small bubble?  In partners, the students blew bubbles then using a paper fan, watched as the air carried the bubbles away.   

            The conclusion appeared to be that the smaller bubbles moved quicker than the large bubbles. 

The students also had to figure out how to make the bubbles appear in different sizes!

Using pipe cleaners, and in groups of four, the second investigation was to see what shape of bubble would appear when the bubble wand was in a square, triangular, double circle or heart shape.

The shocking conclusion.....bubbles are always round!

Here's our proud family with their latest addition of a little sister.  I am sure there are always enough hands to hold this little sweetheart!