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 6- Special Visitors!

Let's welcome Mrs. Kapp to the blog today! Since I wasn't able to attend, Mrs. Kapp graciously agreed to fill us in on everything that happened!

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Mrs. Delk is allowing me to guest post to her blog about this week's Reads and Seeds.  We missed her while she was away at training. Can you believe that we have already had 6 weeks of Reads and Seeds?

This week we hosted a very special guest, Justin Hoenke, from the 2nd Floor of the Chattanooga Public Library. He tweeted:

3D printing at Clifton Hills Elementary with @mrs_kapp and her students this morning! pic.twitter.com/c1e86jlnrV
— The 2nd Floor (@2ndfloorchatt) July 8, 2014

We learned that the plastic comes on a large spool and that is threaded into the printer. You have to select a file to print and send the file to the printer (this is very similar to printing on a regular printer).  The computer sends the selected file to the printer and the printer prints the object.  The amount of detail in a 3D printed object is amazing.  The amount of time that a print takes is dependent on the complexity of the design and the size of the object. The 3D printer that we were using only prints one color at a time.

After Justin shared the ins and outs of 3D, the kids were able to choose an object to print.  Justin created a great menu of items from thingiverse.com that could be printed in 15-20 minutes so that each participant could leave with a 3D printed object.  Go check out some of the amazing things that you can print.

Once the design was chosen, and the print was started, kids were able to choose from our available maker stations while they waited for their turn. Today, we offered weaving, legos, play dough, and mask making.  We recycled last week's green paper from the Photo Booth by turning it into a mural.

The kids were amazed by the printer and several watched and waited while their objects were being printed.  Justin stayed by the printer and answered questions about the process with with the students.   We are so grateful that he brought the printer to our school for us to use.

Here are some pictures from this week! We had Playdoh, looms, and masks for students to play with while waiting for their turn.

Here is a sampling of some of the things we printed today:

Photo courtesy of Jenny Wells

A bracelet!

If you are in the Chattanooga area, you can check out the 3D printer on the 2nd floor if you have a teen or tween.  Adults are welcome to print on the 4th floor.  You can find more information on the Public Library's website.

Thanks again General Delk for letting me write on your blog.  We look forward to seeing everyone for our last Reads and Seeds on July 29th.

Mrs. Kapp

Reads and Seeds Week 5: Around the World

For Week 5 of Reads and Seeds, Mrs. Kapp and I decided to take the kids around the world! I wanted to show the kids a few episodes of Doctor Who (who better to show the world to the kids?) but Mrs. Kapp thought that the kids might like a more hands-on approach.

Our stories for this week were:

Waiting for the Biblioburro Video

Did you know that Waiting for the Biblioburro is based on a true story? Watch this video for more!

Here are some of the activities we had this week:

Mask Making

Students got to make-and-take masks. They had a choice of coloring patriotic masks or making their own design using a craft book that Mrs. Kapp found.

US Puzzle

Do you have what it takes to assemble a nation? These kids do!

Origami

The Japanese art of paper folding. Mrs. Kapp mastered the pinwheel and duck, while I made a box and a hat! The kids mastered being creative, which is all that matters. :)

Looms

Still one of our most popular stations. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

Coloring

Flags of the world, and Doctor Who! (he represents all of Great Britain)

And last, but not least...

Dress up

I brought some articles of clothing that I got from some of my travels, and some super hero costumes my kids got as Christmas gifts. Kids were welcome to dress up how ever they wanted. Of course, they wanted to dress up in as many different ways as possible. :)

We can't wait for week 6! The Public Library is coming and is going to bring some really cool activities!

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!