Ms. Creed's 1st Graders Plant Seeds in Root View Boxes

Today Ms. Creed's first grade students planted radish and lettuce seeds in root view boxes. They'll plant some seeds in the outside root view box when it stops raining!

Ms. Creed had read the book, Tops & Bottoms  by Janet Stevens to the students yesterday in preparation for the lesson.

Before they planted we looked at some vegetables that we eat the bottoms or roots of-radish, beets and carrots as well as a vegetable that we eat the top of-swiss chard.

The students planted the seeds near the window in their root view box so they'll hopefully be able to see the roots grow. We followed the instructions on the link below for the design of the root view boxes. Thanks to the class parents who made the boxes for the students!

http://youreasygarden.com/easy-to-make-root-view-boxes/

The children wrote about the planting activity in their science journals while they were served a small taste of salad. They will keep track of how long it takes to see the roots and how long before the plants germinate.

Special thanks to Winter Armm for helping coordinate the project!

Ms. Schwartz's 3rd Graders Plant Seeds

Thursday Ms. Schwartz's 3rd graders planted seeds that they'll grow under grow lights in their classroom. They planted tomatoes, peppers, corn, zucchini and spinach.  Corn and zucchini are two of the vegetables in the Three Sisters Garden that they'll learn about and plant later this spring.  They made holes in the soil with a pencil after checking how deep to plant the seeds. We are using the Compact Tabletop Sunlight Garden from Gardeners Supply Company in this and other classes to get our seeds to grow quickly. When the seedlings have three leaves we'll transplant them into a raised bed in the edible garden.

They also wrote about their favorite vegetables in their journals and enjoyed a salad with lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, corn and blueberries.

Ms. Bihari's Class Plants Seeds

Two weeks ago, Mrs. Bihari's class learned about "Eating a Rainbow."  We discussed how different colored vegetables (and fruits) supply different important vitamins to our bodies.  Then we planted radishes, carrots, kale, rainbow swiss chard, purple lettuce, and beets to make our own rainbow of vegetables.  We planted half of the seeds under the indoor Grow Light and half directly into their garden bed.  The class made a hypothesis that the seeds would grow equally well in both environments, but so far, most of the indoor seedlings are sprouting, and only three seedlings outside have sprouted.  Hopefully the rain will help!  When the seedlings have three sets of leaves, the students will transfer their seedlings to the garden bed near their classroom.  They will first harden them off to get them used to being outside.

These are the seeds after two weeks! 

Ms. Chaides' 4th Graders Plant in the Native American Garden

Today Ms. Chaides' 4th graders learned about ethnobotany and planted in the Marquez Native American Garden. Ethnobotany is the study of how humans use plants. In our case we are studying how Native people used and still use some of the native plants around them for medicine, food and utensils or tools.  One of the students acted as scribe and took notes in the class garden notebook.

Today the students added some plants to the garden which was planted a couple of years ago as well as weeded the area. Thanks to Carol Bornstein, Director of the Nature Garden at the Natural History Museum and Nancy Cipes, sustainable landscaper, for helping get the plants.

The plants which were planted include: monkeyflower, black sage, purple sage, manzanita and deer grass. They joined the existing garden of monkeyflower, milkweed, California poppy, alum root, California Sagebrush, Cleveland sage and ceanothus.  There are many poppy seedlings growing that were sowed by Ms. Palo's class. In a couple of months the area will be full of the orange flowers of this our state flower. We also have white sage and an oak tree elsewhere on the campus. We'll add the white sage to this area soon.

This spring the students will learn some of the uses of the plants by people and by wildlife.   They are also learning the importance of mulch. Most of the areas are mulched and the dirt was easier to dig in because the soil was more moist. An easy one to remember is deer grass which native people weave into baskets. Also, sages, which are in the mint family, are used for tea.

Thanks to Sharon Agraba for helping plant.

Weeding

Weeding

Planting deer grass