We continued to work on gardening skills and awareness of plant life cycles with the planting of cool season crops, including French sorrel, lettuce, dill, kohlrabi, snow peas, potatoes, and carrots. We learned about the different parts of plants and their roles by examining our crops (carrots are roots, broccoli is flower buds) and playing “plant part bingo” as well as acting out the parts of a tree. When the weather warmed up, we planted tomatoes with funny names, as well as basil, cucumbers, and watermelon. A favorite part of the gardening was learning about the traditional American Three Sisters garden that mixes corn, beans and squash. Our Three Sisters garden is doing well with the beans climbing the corn stalks, squash leaves shading the ground, and buried dead fish acting as fertilizer for them all. Elsewhere we created an edible play area by erecting a tepee and planting sugar snap peas and later pole beans around it. We talked about our five senses while exploring our gardens using them all-- touching fuzzy leaves and square stems; smelling sweet chocolate daisies; tasting herbs; observing germination, growth and development of flowers and fruit; and listening for birds and bees. We had great time learning about Arbor Day while planting a native chinquapin oak seedling. We learned how animals look different and have different life strategies by observing Cabbage White butterfly caterpillars that metamorphosed on our mustard plant, a dead Barred Owl, a mouse, slugs and snails, and plenty of other insects and arachnids. We learned about spring time by going on scavenger hunts, finding and eating edible plants, reading about and observing birds, including our hatching chicks, and acting out spring time activities such as birds making nests and laying eggs. Semester report from Helen for the primary class
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