Hello and happy April!
Has the school year gone by as fast for you all as it has for me?! I can't believe it's already April.
Time flies, I guess!
We dove headfirst into prepping our raised garden beds in the last weeks of March. I was on the hunt for cheap, safe, and effective gardening tools that my Firsties could use during our outdoor time. I immediately went to my neighborhood Dollar Store like any thrifty teacher would and found gardening gloves, trowels, yard waste bags, and rakes that were perfect for our needs! I'll advise you here that it's worthwhile to shop through all the aisles in these stores, because sometimes things are organized in funny ways...I found the gardening gloves near automotive supplies (don't ask me!). Here's a photo of our gloves, trowels, and bags all laid out before the madness began:Our first task was to get rid of the plants that had gone to flower or seed. We collected some of the seeds from these plants (mostly broccoli and cauliflower, and you would never know it by the looks of them when they're flowering) so we could replant them in our fresh beds. We didn't want to waste the precious seeds they were producing, but we didn't need them taking up space in our beds the way they had overgown. Here's some photos of the kiddos removing the flowering plants. They discovered that weeding is a lot more difficult than it sounds!
And here's some photos of a few proud Firsties and the plants they successfully removed from the gardens:
We had some really wonderful experiences during this center rotation. I always bring out the class iPad when we have our outdoor garden days in case an opportunity to use it arises. On this day, we found some insects in the garden that got the Firsties really excited, so I showed the students how to use the iPad to take photos and we managed to get some great shots of our "garden helpers." This was a great way to not only integrate technology in a meaningful way, but it also helped build background knowledge for the students so we could jump into a unit on insects that would tie in beautifully to our garden curriculum and meet some first grade standards (yay!). Here's a photo of the kids using the iPad in action, along with the photos they took:
As you can see, the garden beds were healthy to begin with which was a great bonus for us to begin our gardening. The day proved eventful and provided for a great number of experiences that we'll be using in the days and weeks to come!
P.S. Here's a couple of books that tie in with our garden theme I read my Firsties this week:
Mrs. Spitzer's Garden A Gardener's Alphabet The Tiny Seed
by Edith Pattou by Mary Azarian by Eric Carle
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