Garden Corner
2018-2019
September 2018
We are excited to kick off a new school year of exploring our Neighborhood House Gardens! All classes had a change to sample some yummy snacks from our garden including cherry tomatoes, string beans and a few late season raspberries. This month’s garden literature included The Carrot Seed by Ruth Kraus and The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle. Our 4s reviewed garden safety, explored the garden and talked about where food comes from (i.e., a farm or garden versus a supermarket). Our 3s heard the received their introduction to the garden and learned our Garden Song:
Garden Song
Dig, dig, dig the earth
(Make digging motion)
Then you plant the seeds
(Pretend to drop seeds)
A gentle rain
(Flutter fingers down)
And bright sunshine
(Circle arms above head)
Will
(Crouch downand pretend to be a tiny seed)
Help our flowers
(Slowly stand up)
Grow!
(Wave hands high above head)
(Sung to the tune of “Row Row Row Your Boat”
Adapted from http://www.preschooleducation.com/sgarden.shtml, original author unknown)
October 2018
It’s been a busy month at Neighborhood House! All classes explored sunflowers early this month. We read Sunflower House by Eve Bunting. During a garden visit, we saw what was left of the sunflower house that was planted in the spring by some of our current 3s. Groups of our 4s helped pull the withering and very tall sunflower plants out of the ground. They carried some plants to our compost pile and some to the playground for the entire school to explore. We all looked at the flowers, seeds, stems, leaves and roots up close, and helped to collect seeds to plant a new sunflower house in the spring.
The Millburn Farmers’ Market again welcomed our 4s and our wonderful parent chaperones for a scavenger hunt of fruits, vegetables and other food sold there. We prepared for the trip with a reading of A Day at the Farmer’s Market by Luke Kelly. Our market visit allowed us to continue our study of how our food ends up on our plates. There were many colors and shapes of produce to identify and compare, and everyone had fun hunting for items in the scavenger hunt. The vendors told us about the items they had for sale. Our 3s enjoyed We’re Going to the Farmers’ Market by Stefan Page and shared their experiences of attending farmers’ markets.
We of course spent time exploring pumpkins as Halloween approached! Last spring and summer, we watched our pumpkin vines grow. Over the summer, we harvested one orange pumpkin. This month we explored a very long withering vine from my home garden, and studied its roots, stem, leaves and flowers. We cut into both our traditional orange pumpkin and a white pumpkin to investigate the similarities and differences of the flesh, seeds and pulp inside. We were sure to set aside 6 pumpkin seeds from each pumpkin to plant in the spring just as the character Jaime did in Pumpkin Pumpkin by Jeanne Titherington. The orange pumpkin grown in the school garden was carved into a jack o lantern on Halloween and placed on the school’s porch.
November 2018
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I would like to express my gratitude for the Neighborhood House parents, grandparents, students and siblings who joined the staff on a Sunday, 11/4 to help clear the paths around our plots of weeds. They also helped prepare our garden to “sleep” during the cold winter months. Thank you all!
This month all classes spent some time with important underground gardeners, our friends the worms! Worms from our garden visited the children. Willing participants allowed the worms to move on their hands while others studied them from a comfortable distance. We offered the earth worms fallen leaves from the playground and apple peels as a snack. Thanks to the book Yucky Worms by Vivian French, we learned how worms transform those leaves, apple peels as well as garden debris into castings (a.k.a. worm poop!) that help our garden grow.
Even though the cold days of winter are looming, we aren’t quite done with planting in the garden. The 4s planted garlic in the garden that we’ll harvest at the end of the school year. The 3s will soon plant flower bulbs that will bloom as one of our first signs of spring. We all used our senses of sight, touch and smell to explore amaryllis, hyacinth, and garlic bulbs and onions and compared their sizes, shapes and colors. All classes are watching garlic, amaryllis, hyacinth and allium bulbs grow in cups in the classrooms. We look forward to seeing colorful blooms in the coming months.
March 2019
Spring is FINALLY here and we’re ready to get back to our school gardens! All classes started exploring the community garden and searched for signs of spring. We found the garlic shoots and tulip leaves poking through the soil where we planted their bulbs in the fall. We also found yellow and purple crocus and bright yellow daffodils. Buds are forming on our peach tree branches. We’re look forward to seeing what else will appear in our gardens as the days grow warmer, and in the meantime, we’re enjoying watching forsythia and peach branches bloom in our science centers.
Our reading list included Zinnia’s Flower Garden by Monica Wellington, Grow Flower Grow by Lisa Bruce and Rosie Rabbit’s Radish by Wendy Cheyette Lewison. We’re sharing what we would like to grow in the garden. Suggestions ranged from strawberries, carrots and beans to cherries, oranges and cheese! We’ll talk about what we can and cannot plant in our garden next month. I’m sure some will be disappointed that cheese seeds will be hard to come by!
We’re looking forward to April and its showers. There are seeds to plant and paths to mulch! We’ll be sure to celebrate Earth Day with some Earth-friendly gardening projects in the coming weeks.
April 2019
Early this month, some Neighborhood House students and parents joined me on a Saturday morning to prepare our plots for the growing season. We also helped the entire Community Garden by clearing out the common areas with our fellow community gardeners. Thank you to all who participated. I truly appreciate your help!
April showers are turning our garden into a rainbow of colors! All classes took tours of the garden and observed pea plants, lettuce and herbs growing. Our peach trees were covered in pink blossoms. We all spotted the pink hyacinths, yellow and white daffodils and the multicolored tulips that bloomed from the bulbs planted by many past Neighborhood House students. The 4s were happy to see the garlic cloves they planted have grown tall green leaves. We even began our purple asparagus harvest. We’ll continue our asparagus harvest and use the stalks to make a delicious asparagus soup for our Mother’s Day celebration in May.
Reading Bear and Bunny Grow Tomatoes by Bruce Kosceilniak gave us a chance to talk about how to plan and care for our garden. We learned that gardening takes a great deal of work, but careful planning, weeding and watering will lead us to a great harvest. Like Bear, we hope to share our harvest with others. All students had the chance to draw their ideal garden our garden map.
The garden described in The Surprise Garden by Zoe Hall wasn’t much of a surprise to our students. Many were able to identify many of the seeds pictured in the book! Our morning 3s and afternoon 2 ½- 3s class have a small surprise garden in the classroom root viewer. The peas they planted are growing longer by the day, but a mysterious plant has sprouted in the viewer. We hope to solve the mystery as the plant grows larger.
After reading Anywhere Farm by Phyliss Root, the 3s and 4s classes brainstormed about fun objects to plant a garden in. Students’ suggestions included boots, an old frying pan, gloves or underpants! We encourage all families to find a creative item to start a small garden in at home.
May promises to be a busy garden month. We’ll plant many seeds and plants directly in the garden. We’ll work on our final take home garden project of the school year. We’ll also review the plant life cycle and enjoy some yummy garden treats along the way.
Michele Sofo, The Garden Enrichment Teacher
September 2018
We are excited to kick off a new school year of exploring our Neighborhood House Gardens! All classes had a change to sample some yummy snacks from our garden including cherry tomatoes, string beans and a few late season raspberries. This month’s garden literature included The Carrot Seed by Ruth Kraus and The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle. Our 4s reviewed garden safety, explored the garden and talked about where food comes from (i.e., a farm or garden versus a supermarket). Our 3s heard the received their introduction to the garden and learned our Garden Song:
Garden Song
Dig, dig, dig the earth
(Make digging motion)
Then you plant the seeds
(Pretend to drop seeds)
A gentle rain
(Flutter fingers down)
And bright sunshine
(Circle arms above head)
Will
(Crouch downand pretend to be a tiny seed)
Help our flowers
(Slowly stand up)
Grow!
(Wave hands high above head)
(Sung to the tune of “Row Row Row Your Boat”
Adapted from http://www.preschooleducation.com/sgarden.shtml, original author unknown)
October 2018
It’s been a busy month at Neighborhood House! All classes explored sunflowers early this month. We read Sunflower House by Eve Bunting. During a garden visit, we saw what was left of the sunflower house that was planted in the spring by some of our current 3s. Groups of our 4s helped pull the withering and very tall sunflower plants out of the ground. They carried some plants to our compost pile and some to the playground for the entire school to explore. We all looked at the flowers, seeds, stems, leaves and roots up close, and helped to collect seeds to plant a new sunflower house in the spring.
The Millburn Farmers’ Market again welcomed our 4s and our wonderful parent chaperones for a scavenger hunt of fruits, vegetables and other food sold there. We prepared for the trip with a reading of A Day at the Farmer’s Market by Luke Kelly. Our market visit allowed us to continue our study of how our food ends up on our plates. There were many colors and shapes of produce to identify and compare, and everyone had fun hunting for items in the scavenger hunt. The vendors told us about the items they had for sale. Our 3s enjoyed We’re Going to the Farmers’ Market by Stefan Page and shared their experiences of attending farmers’ markets.
We of course spent time exploring pumpkins as Halloween approached! Last spring and summer, we watched our pumpkin vines grow. Over the summer, we harvested one orange pumpkin. This month we explored a very long withering vine from my home garden, and studied its roots, stem, leaves and flowers. We cut into both our traditional orange pumpkin and a white pumpkin to investigate the similarities and differences of the flesh, seeds and pulp inside. We were sure to set aside 6 pumpkin seeds from each pumpkin to plant in the spring just as the character Jaime did in Pumpkin Pumpkin by Jeanne Titherington. The orange pumpkin grown in the school garden was carved into a jack o lantern on Halloween and placed on the school’s porch.
November 2018
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I would like to express my gratitude for the Neighborhood House parents, grandparents, students and siblings who joined the staff on a Sunday, 11/4 to help clear the paths around our plots of weeds. They also helped prepare our garden to “sleep” during the cold winter months. Thank you all!
This month all classes spent some time with important underground gardeners, our friends the worms! Worms from our garden visited the children. Willing participants allowed the worms to move on their hands while others studied them from a comfortable distance. We offered the earth worms fallen leaves from the playground and apple peels as a snack. Thanks to the book Yucky Worms by Vivian French, we learned how worms transform those leaves, apple peels as well as garden debris into castings (a.k.a. worm poop!) that help our garden grow.
Even though the cold days of winter are looming, we aren’t quite done with planting in the garden. The 4s planted garlic in the garden that we’ll harvest at the end of the school year. The 3s will soon plant flower bulbs that will bloom as one of our first signs of spring. We all used our senses of sight, touch and smell to explore amaryllis, hyacinth, and garlic bulbs and onions and compared their sizes, shapes and colors. All classes are watching garlic, amaryllis, hyacinth and allium bulbs grow in cups in the classrooms. We look forward to seeing colorful blooms in the coming months.
March 2019
Spring is FINALLY here and we’re ready to get back to our school gardens! All classes started exploring the community garden and searched for signs of spring. We found the garlic shoots and tulip leaves poking through the soil where we planted their bulbs in the fall. We also found yellow and purple crocus and bright yellow daffodils. Buds are forming on our peach tree branches. We’re look forward to seeing what else will appear in our gardens as the days grow warmer, and in the meantime, we’re enjoying watching forsythia and peach branches bloom in our science centers.
Our reading list included Zinnia’s Flower Garden by Monica Wellington, Grow Flower Grow by Lisa Bruce and Rosie Rabbit’s Radish by Wendy Cheyette Lewison. We’re sharing what we would like to grow in the garden. Suggestions ranged from strawberries, carrots and beans to cherries, oranges and cheese! We’ll talk about what we can and cannot plant in our garden next month. I’m sure some will be disappointed that cheese seeds will be hard to come by!
We’re looking forward to April and its showers. There are seeds to plant and paths to mulch! We’ll be sure to celebrate Earth Day with some Earth-friendly gardening projects in the coming weeks.
April 2019
Early this month, some Neighborhood House students and parents joined me on a Saturday morning to prepare our plots for the growing season. We also helped the entire Community Garden by clearing out the common areas with our fellow community gardeners. Thank you to all who participated. I truly appreciate your help!
April showers are turning our garden into a rainbow of colors! All classes took tours of the garden and observed pea plants, lettuce and herbs growing. Our peach trees were covered in pink blossoms. We all spotted the pink hyacinths, yellow and white daffodils and the multicolored tulips that bloomed from the bulbs planted by many past Neighborhood House students. The 4s were happy to see the garlic cloves they planted have grown tall green leaves. We even began our purple asparagus harvest. We’ll continue our asparagus harvest and use the stalks to make a delicious asparagus soup for our Mother’s Day celebration in May.
Reading Bear and Bunny Grow Tomatoes by Bruce Kosceilniak gave us a chance to talk about how to plan and care for our garden. We learned that gardening takes a great deal of work, but careful planning, weeding and watering will lead us to a great harvest. Like Bear, we hope to share our harvest with others. All students had the chance to draw their ideal garden our garden map.
The garden described in The Surprise Garden by Zoe Hall wasn’t much of a surprise to our students. Many were able to identify many of the seeds pictured in the book! Our morning 3s and afternoon 2 ½- 3s class have a small surprise garden in the classroom root viewer. The peas they planted are growing longer by the day, but a mysterious plant has sprouted in the viewer. We hope to solve the mystery as the plant grows larger.
After reading Anywhere Farm by Phyliss Root, the 3s and 4s classes brainstormed about fun objects to plant a garden in. Students’ suggestions included boots, an old frying pan, gloves or underpants! We encourage all families to find a creative item to start a small garden in at home.
May promises to be a busy garden month. We’ll plant many seeds and plants directly in the garden. We’ll work on our final take home garden project of the school year. We’ll also review the plant life cycle and enjoy some yummy garden treats along the way.
Michele Sofo, The Garden Enrichment Teacher
