Enjoying the fruits of our labor

WE HAVE A SQUASH!! And it's gorgeous!!

For those of my followers who were wondering if our school garden would ever "sprout", boy did it ever!! Of the original seeds planted, from my students last year, only the corn survived replanting. The other plants in the garden were planted during our Reads & Seeds summer reading program.

Currently, we have squash, pumpkin, corn, tomatoes, and peppers planted. On the other side of the barn there are 2 planter boxes that are just waiting to be filled with our fall crops. (I'm thinking spinach or cabbage).

At any rate, my students and I have checked on our plants everyday when we go out to recess. Imagine our happiness when we found a perfect squash just waiting to be picked! I told the kids to expect a taste testing the next day.

I went out and bought some squash so we'd have enough for everyone to have some, as well as some for research purposes. For those of you who don't think there's a difference between store bought and "home grown", check out this pic.

The bigger one is the one we grew. I bought 4 squash total. Here are the others next to ours.

Pretty sad actually. I showed my students ours and one of the store bought. I asked them if they could tell which one came from our garden. The class was split between those who thought the smaller one was ours (cause it looked "dirty" like it might have come from a garden), and those who though the bigger one was ours (cause it looked pretty big when we saw it yesterday).

I had chopped up the other squash and gave each student a piece to hold and inspect. We've been working on adjectives in our writing, so we used our 5 senses to describe the squash. We created a chart of our words. The "taste" and "hear- sounds like" sections were filled in after our tasting. We read the book The Ugly Vegetables before making the chart, hence the title. :)

Here's the squash chopped up and ready for tasting. We all found it a little sad when we cut our perfect squash. :(

Everyone had to try it. No exceptions. I told my students to be quiet while eating so they could hear how the squash sounded when chewed. They were as quiet as they could be. :)

Some of my kids really dug into the squash, while others just pretended. However, when I pulled out some salad dressing, everyone decided that squash was the best veggie ever and asked for more.

 I think our first tasting from our garden was a success! My students can't wait until more veggies start to sprout. Everyone has their eye on the corn, but I'm not sure how to tell when corn is "done". Guess I'll have to Google it.

We'll keep everyone posted!

Reads and Seeds Week 4: Reading Takes Flight

What do you get when you combine rockets with butterflies? You get week 4 of Reads and Seeds!

Our focus text was The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.

Mrs. Kapp had a variety of stations for students to explore, but three of them focused on the topic of flight.

Create Your Own Butterfly!

Either with pipe cleaners and tissue paper, or with paper plates and toilet paper rolls

Build Your Own Rockets!

Mrs. Kapp found directions for students to build their own paper rockets using paper, pencils, tape, and straws. It was Rockin' awesome! The goal was to see how far students could make their rockets fly. After their first flight, they could change their rocket's length, direction, and trajectory. 

Build and Taste!

Using different fruits, students made, and ate, their own butterflies. Needless to say, this was the favorite of the activities today. Great idea, Mrs. Kapp!

And of course, we had our usual stations that everyone loves each week. Looms, Lincoln Logs, and Legos.

Garden Time

After our snack and story time, it was time to get to the garden. We now have 6 of our 8 garden beds made and planted. Mr. Evans also took it upon himself to get potting soil so we could fill in the side garden area. (not sure how to describe it- but you'll see it in the pics)

 This is the "Barn", also known as our outdoor classroom. It gets plenty of sun and is perfect for our garden. 

The side area. It's already blocked off with paving stones, so we just filled it in with dirt. We planted watermelons today. Next week we will add some more veggies.

Our first 4 vegetable beds. Corn, squash, tomatoes, and cabbage.

 Here's the squash we planted just last week! They've already sprouted!

 Our two newest garden beds. Two more squash and cabbages.

My kids posing in the Barn.

We hope to see everyone next week!
Next week Reads and Seeds will be traveling Around the World using stories and costumes!

Reads and Seeds Week 2: QR Codes and Planting

This week, Mrs. Kapp and I set up stations for students to complete. We had coloring, weaving, bracelet making, blocks, and QR code Tic-Tac-Toe.

At the QR code station, students could choose between the science and social studies Tic-Tac-Toe boards. Each code would take students to a different website and there were tasks to complete. For each 3 in a row students completed, they could receive a small prize out of Mrs. Kapp's goody basket.

If you'd like a copy of the QR Tic-Tac-Toe, click on the link {HERE} to take you to where you download it for FREE!!

This week, students were able to plant some seeds and we got to play in the dirt outside.

Gloves donated by Lowes in Ft. Oglethorpe. They also donated a big bag of potting soil! Thank you!

Don't you love the garden bed? My hubby made it! He promised me 8 total. This bed has corn planted in it. It's one of the seeds that survived from TCAP week!

Pumpkin and cantaloupe from TCAP week. Not sure if the cantaloupe will make it, but we have plenty of seeds to take its place.

Our gardening superheroes!

The 8 garden beds will go around the "Barn" that is located outside our school. It's really a barn-shaped shed that classes can use as an outdoor classroom. I thought it would be fitting to have the garden there. :)