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.
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.
Michele Sofo, The Garden Enrichment Teacher
