Ms. Gardner's 2nd Graders Celebrate Earth Week

This week Ms. Gardner's 2nd graders celebrated Earth Week. They planted seeds in recycled egg cartons, composted and planted some more seeds in their raised bed.

The egg carton seed starting project was from Scrapkins. By planting in egg cartons, the children helped the Earth by reusing the egg cartons which will decompose in the ground when they are wet and planted.  The children planted lettuce, carrot and basil seeds in their egg cartons and took them home with instructions for care. They covered the seeds with just a bit of soil as the seeds are small.

In class we discussed that compost helps the Earth by reusing food scraps and items from trees rather than throwing them away.  Compost ingredients are classified as greens (food scraps excluding meat products) and browns (items from trees). Children took turns putting items in the compost bin. They added corn husks, lettuce, strawberries, coffee grounds, coffee filters, newspaper and leaves.

The children planted companion plants of tomatoes in the salsa bed. Companion plants are friends that help the other plants grow well.  They planted lettuce and radish seeds and a nasturtium.  We also looked at the arugula in Ms. Soo's bed and tasted the arugula flowers. They are spicy! Some of the children took home arugula seed pods. They can plant the seeds when they are dry.