Week Three: Apple Tasting

In the Garden:

Mrs. Finnerty's Garden

Last Friday, we had 13 classes plant in the garden boxes. What a wonderful way to expose children to the joys of growing your own food and to give the teachers a way to complement their science lessons with a hands-on experience. So, now the after school Garden Club is going to maintain the classroom gardens. This week, the Garden Club planted some remaining seedlings in the classroom boxes and watered now newly planted seeds.



Garden Lesson: 
This week, the students learned about different types of apples. As adults, most of us have learned that we like one type of apple more than others, so that's what we buy and that's what our kids eat, but there are numerous varieties of apples. During Garden Club, the kids tasted five different types of apples: McIntosh, Granny Smith, Pink Lady, Red Delicious, Golden Delicious. They rated each apple from 1 to 5 on color, texture, taste, and smell. Granny Smith received the highest rating during our taste test.

Thank you to Ms. Eva for volunteering in the garden!!

Week Two: Harvesting

This week we had homemade pumpkin bars and jicama for snack.

In the Garden: The kids harvested our fall produce, including tomatoes, basil, bell peppers, and carrots. We added new soil and organic fertilizer to get ready to plant our winter crops.

If you would like to volunteer in the garden, please let me know. Kids always love having their parents join us. Thanks to Kathleen and Eva for lending a hand!!

Garden Club: Session One

Welcome to Session One at El Morro's Garden Club!

The El Morro Garden Club meets most Mondays from 2:30-3:30 p.m. Students choose how they spend their time in the garden. Options include: working in the garden (planting, weeding, harvesting), completing a garden-themed, hands-on activity that enhances their understanding of math, science, reading, writing, or creative arts, or engaging in supervised "free play" utilizing a bin of supplies such as books, journals, magnifying glasses, and art supplies.

Week One

Lesson: Plant Parts Picnic

This week the kids learned and ate parts of the plant: seed (sunflower seeds), root (carrot), stem (celery), leaf (spinach), flower, fruit (apple). They drew and labeled the parts of the plant.

In the Garden: The kids picked the wild mint from the garden and helped prune trees. We have some big pumpkins growing! We also found a lizard.