Garden Color Wheel

Week Three: Landscape Design

Lesson: This week we talked about landscape design and how color is used to plan a garden. We looked at the color wheel and the students tried to find various colors growing in the garden. They were amazed at how many colors actually grow in nature...not just green and brown!

Gardening: We planted rainbow radishes and carrots. In a couple of weeks, we should see what colors we get. Forget the traditional orange carrots and red radishes.

Vermicomposting

Week Two: Vermicomposting

Lesson: Worm Hotel
This week we talked about composting with worms. We do have a worm bin in the garden at El Morro. I showed the kids the worms (red wigglers) and taught them what they do and do not eat. We fed them vegetable scraps and gave them a fresh bed of moistened newspaper. EXTRA CREDIT: If your child brings worm food to garden club, he/she will earn a Star Buck!!!

Gardening: We planted an herb garden that included rosemary, dill, parsley, and cilantro.

Reminder: Here are the rules of the garden. Please be sure that you and your child are aware of what is expected of them in the garden.

Plant Growth

We had a great start to session two of the after school El Morro Garden Club. This week we focused on  the rules of the garden and made name tags to get to know each other better.

Week One: Plant Growth

Lesson: Know and Show Sombrero
We made garden hats from recycled newspaper. The kids had fun learning about recycling and designing hats to keep the sun off their face.

Gardening: We did lots of winter planting. We added the following to our garden boxes: Broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce and cabbage. We also picked some beets from last session.

Reminder: Please send your kids to school on Monday in clothes that can get dirty. Also, if you DO NOT want your child's photo published on the blog, please let me know (sharael@aol.com). Names will not be posted.

Vegetables and Herbs

This was our last day of the first session of garden club. I encourage you to sign your kids up for the next session so that they can see what they planted, grow into full size plants!

Week Seven: Vegetable and Herbs

Lesson: Make Your Pick

We talked about the importance of eating locally grown food and planned what we'd like to plant in our vegetable garden in the fall and spring. 

Gardening: We picked and ate apples from our tree in the garden. We planted cabbage and watered our herb garden.

Thank you miss Julie for bringing pumpkin muffins!!

Potato Block Prints

Week Six: Fruits and Nuts

Lesson: Botanical Wood Prints

Today we made block print made from potatoes. The kids then made their prints into paper cones that could be used as party hats or gift bags.

 

Gardening: We pant lettuce in the garden.

Making Maps in the Garden

Week Five: Landscape and Horticulture

Lesson: Site Map

Today the students got to be Landscape Architects. They drew a site map of the garden to include everything they saw in the garden: garden boxes, trees, fence, water spigot, seating, scarecrow, garden signs, etc. They loved making the maps! They were then able to make changes to their map to add elements that the garden does not currently have...like a butterfly house and a fairy garden. 

Thank you Miss Gena for bringing tea that we picked from the rose hips in the garden. And Miss Julie for bringing Witches Hats cookies!

Gardening: Trim rose bush. Collect rosehips to make tea. Pull weeds. Our beets are doing well.

 

Just for fun: We painted rocks to add some art to our garden.

All About Insects

Week Four: Insects and Diseases

Lesson: Insect Symmetry

We talked about how things are either symmetrical or asymmetrical and used duct tape to divide our bodies in half lengthwise (symmetrical) and then top and bottom (asymmetrical). 

Then we did an art project where the kids drew half of a butterfly on a folded piece of paper and cut it out. They painted one side and folded it together and made a symmetrical design.

Gardening: We planted cauliflower and broccoli and added more herbs to our garden: Thai basil, dill and rosemary.

Mr. Gena brought in a HUGE tomato hornworm for the kids to see! It was quite something.