Mrs. Grasso's Peppers

We had a very exciting day in the garden...our first classroom planted in one of the beds! Mrs. Grasso's third grade class planted a mix of red, green and orange bell peppers so that they can get hands-on experience with their plant-related science studies. It was wonderful to have some students that had not had the chance to be in the garden before. The class will monitor and tend to their garden about once a month.

Limeade Taste Test

Garden Projects:
Limeade: Today in the garden we picked fresh limes from our lime tree and made limeade using agave sweetener. We then picked herbs from the garden to infuse our limeade. Children got to choose from rosemary, mint, or lavendar-flavored limeade. Mint was the most popular. Try it at home!

Bean TeePee:
The kids helped build a bean teepee from bamboo poles that we tied together. We planted pole beans around the bottom that will crawl up the bamboo and make a green hideout for kids. We used rocks for the "floor" of the teepee and a tree stump to sit on.

Garden-Themed Activity:
Kids had the option to use bug stencils to draw and color pictures of their own creation. Lots of creative art pieces!

Thank you Rebecca Meekma (Maggie & Izzy's mom) for providing snack!

Herb Bouquets

We had a fun-filled day in the garden today. Here's what we were up to:

A Visitor to Our Garden!

Garden Activity:
The students helped plant sweet peas along the chain link fence in order to "beautify" the garden a bit.

We cleaned up our "Digging" section of the garden and looked for buried fossils. Unfortunately, we didn't find any (I'll have to hid some before class next week...Shhhh!).

Activity Theme: All about Herbs
We picked herbs from our Herb Garden Bed and bundled them with a bow for the kids to take home with a label of which herbs were included. Most kids took home: Sage, Tarragon, Lavendar, Rosemary, and Thyme. The bouquets smelled so good.

We also did a color hunt. The kids worked together in groups of three to find items in the garden that matched earth-toned paint swatches they were given. They had fun trying to find the perfect match.

Thank you Jan Schrieber (aka Quinn's mom) for snacks!

Fall Harvest

This week in the garden we picked the fruits of our labor...literally.

In the Garden:

Picked from our garden!

• The students had fun picking watermelon and cucumber melon from the garden. We enjoyed having the fresh fruit for snack.  
• We continued to weed out the wild mint.
• Our Master Gardener volunteer Gena assisted the kids with planting radishes, marigolds, and calendula.
• We spotted a huge grasshopper sitting quietly on one of our strawberry plants.

Activity Theme: Sunscreen!

• Since our shade structure collapsed in a winter storm last year, we needed to get creative with providing shade for the kids. Today in the garden they decorated sun visors to use when they are in the garden.

A special thanks to Kim Lucas for providing a healthy snack to fuel the kids for gardening.

Pumpkin Patch!

This week in the garden it was all about the pumpkins. The seeds that we planted last spring sprouted successfully and grew into eight large pumpkins. 



Garden Projects:

• The kids eagerly harvested the pumpkins and then weeded the garden bed for future planting.
• We planted a navel orange tree that was donated by the Orange County Great Park.

Activity Theme: Cooperation

The kids worked in small groups to create a design for each of the pumpkins. They had to collaborate to come up with one design per group and then worked together to decorate the pumpkin with their design using permanent markers, puffy paint, and stickers. It was nice to see how well they worked together.

Next week: Tasting what's growing in the garden. Garden Journals.

2011: Session One in the Garden

Session One in the El Morro After School Garden Club has begun. We are off to a great start in the garden this year. The summer sunshine helped our garden blossom. The students were so excited to see what was growing: pumpkins, bell peppers, herbs, cucumber melons, honeydew melons, watermelons.


We kicked off our first class by making nametag buttons and teaching the kids the rules of the garden.
Each week we will start off with a healthy snack and have a garden project and an activity that focuses mainly on science or art. Here's what we did this week:


Garden Projects:

• Pulled weeds. The wild mint was taking over!
• Picked marigolds to take home.
• Renewed the Fairy Garden that had become overgrown.
• Cleaned up the Herb/Sensory Garden.

Art Activity:

• Made nametag buttons and got to know each other.

Next class will focus on oranges and pumpkins!