Ms. Connors' class and Mr. Jacob's class plant in the garden

Today Ms. Connor's class and Mr. Jacobs' class visited the garden. We had four sessions. Half of each class came for 45 minutes each. This allows small group instruction time for the rest of the class.

Today we discussed their favorite vegetables and the concept of cool season and warm season vegetables. Cool season vegetables are grown in the fall and winter when the temperature of the air and soil are cooler than in the summer. Some of their favorite cool season vegetables included broccoli, peas and carrots. I showed them some props of cool season vegetables that we'll be growing: broccoli, lettuce, carrots and beets.  Ms. Connor's class planted carrot seeds on the border of the broccoli bed. Mr. Jacobs' students sowed both carrot seeds and beet seeds.

One benefit of growing your own food is the increased variety. Today the children planted seeds of two different types of carrots-one is reddish purple (cosmic purple) and the other is orange. They also planted two types of beets-red and golden.

I wrote down the crops planted and the dates so we can see how long it takes for the seeds to germinate.

The children also saw three types of animals in the garden-a lizard, some ladybugs, some aphids and two monarch butterfly caterpillars. I introduced the word chrysalis to them. Hopefully the caterpillars will survive to this stage.

Thanks to Heather H. for volunteering with Mr. Jacobs' class. Please let me know if you'd like to also volunteer. My email is harty3@gmail.com.

Here are some photos:

Planting carrot seeds.

Planting carrot and beet seeds.

Cosmic Purple Carrots