Ms. Conn's Class Plants in the Jeffersonian Garden

This week Ms. Conn's 5th graders began their study of Thomas Jefferson the president and horticulturist. An application to social studies was that they learned that he was the 3rd president, had a plantation called Monticello and that it was in Virginia and that he asked Lewis and Clark to bring back plants and seeds. They also learned that the garden was 1,000 feet long and that it has been restored.

We are planting heirloom seeds from the Center for Historic Plants at Monticello in the 5th grade Jeffersonian garden. At this time we're planting cool season vegetables. The students voted to plant kale, radishes, lettuce and cabbage. They planted Lacinato Kale, China Rose Winter Radish, Tennis Ball Lettuce and Early Jersey Wakefield Cabbage.

As always when planting a new crop, we amended the soil with compost. In this case we used Worm-Gro that was donated by Kellogg's Garden Products.

Lacinato or dinosaur kale that was grown last year. 

Tennis ball lettuce that was grown last year.

Zoe was the scribe for the class and wrote down salient points including new vocabulary such as restored and heirloom. We discussed the meaning of these and other terms. One student, in explaining the meaning of heirloom, mentioned that she had an heirloom Christmas ornament. We also discussed the meaning of heirloom seeds and seed saving.