Liquid to Solid...Buttering It Up!

This week, we combined the our FOSS science unit...Solids and Liquids into a fun Farm to School connection! Our 2nd graders learned how to make butter! I first ask the kiddos how milk gets to the store. Then, we show the vimeo video The Milk Maker from the Reading Rainbow found at http://vimeo.com/6240198.  After we watch up to 20 minutes and the cow says "Moo", we stop to work on our sheet that I made.. in my Milk Makers: Let's Make Butter Pack.

This is the poster I made to do a writing project with...How to make butter!

Our Cow Craftity...to add to our recipe writing project!

7-10 minutes is all it takes!

Fresh butter is YUMMY!

Here is all you need to make a liquid into a solid. An udderly fun activity!

Tomorrow...the butter is getting used in our harvest of the month activity...why wheat bread is better for you than white bread...and which tastes better on it...butter or margerine? Stay tuned...

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Happ"BEE" New Year!

Okay...so in my last post I was telling you how I am already planning for the next planting season...right?!! I know...I know... I live here in Wisconsin and I will be lucky if I can start planting outdoors by April, but...I am growing microgreens with students inside in January...with whoever wants to plant with me at recess...I will have a TON o' kids...who wants to be outdoors when it is too cold! Not me!

Well, I got so excited about some of my new book purchases that I had to create a bee unit for this school year...in and out of the garden. Where would our garden be without the bees?

SO...Happ"Bee" New Year...Here is a FREE"BEE" for you!

You can find  the FREE"BEE" HEREor at my Science School Yard TPT Store!

"BEE" Happy, my friends!

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New Year...New Paths

As a farm to school site, I have been truly blessed to be watch so many things grow....I growing far more than I could ever imagine. Two years ago, I was asked around this time if I wanted to use a farm to school grant that was just "sitting there". It was my first year in science after 20 years in the regular ed classroom... and I was growing as a science teacher...why not take the grant.

The first year...magic happened. I bought some worms...taught about vermicomposting...planted some seeds with all 400 students...dug some holes...laid some raised beds...and the rest is history. Magic seeds I say! Magic seeds.

 It changed my life...really. I learned to plant a garden right along with my students. The first year, we planted over 15 beds...that number grew to include over 25 this year and over 20 types of herbs, not to mention a strawberry patch. This next year...even more...and other projects to boot!

Each new year...2015...I start formulating in my mind what we want to accomplish for the new garden season. I get really excited...I even bought seeds today...really. Peas, arugula, and spinach. Seeds for our new winter growing season of microgreens and even chia pets with the art teacher! Stay tuned.

Onto my new path...this year, I am presenting at the Farm to School Summit for the state of Wisconsin. I just finished my presentation and am really excited to share how amazing planting a seed can be for students and their teachers. I am including the presentation for you to see and maybe get growing yourself... Let me know what you think...any feedback would be appreciated. To new adventures in the new year!

            Farm To School Presentation

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Students at our school last week voted for their favorite kind of apple...store bought red delicious or farm fresh from a local orchard,  Helene's,  and the winner is....

Voting day!

Apple one...or apple two????

The winner is fresh picked! 81 for store bought and 161 for fresh picked! Way to exercise your right to vote Jefferson Jaguars! This is another great way to add some Farm to School Activities to your school day! Make it relevant...let kids have a voice in what goes into their lunchroom!

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Wordless Wednesday...School Garden Harvest

We are almost done with our harvest in our school garden, but how fun to continue to pick until the frost comes. I hear snow flurries this weekend?!!?? We are continuing to pick our cherry tomatoes, and our carrots just went into the lunchroom today. Next week, our potatoes will be served up, hot and roasted. How exciting. So, thanks to Miss DeCarbo over at Second Grade Sugar and Spice I can share my Wordless Wednesday picture.

Carrots from our school garden went into the lunchroom three times so far! Yummmm...so sweet!

Cherry Tomatoes not a fan favorite, until they tried them. Just one of the many buckets we have picked and served!

School Gardens make a difference!

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Garden Time

Pollination Fun with Cheeto's

It is time to plant the vegetables! We are very busy in our school garden. This week, our kinders are planting their pumpkin patch. While, the first graders are planting sunflowers. Our second graders are planting cucumbers, broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, peppers, and squash all from plants they grew from seed. They are very excited. What is even more exciting is that their peas are growing. The competition is on. Funny though, the first group that planted is winning, but by a lot even though it was every day for four days that they planted pea seeds. They got a really big head start I guess that one day.

Kinders learning to plant pumpkins...scoop, dump, drop, cover, mound, water! Easy peasy, lemon squeazy!

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Mr. McGregor's Garden Continued....

So my little Junior Master Gardeners were gathered today to learn how to read and order seeds from a seed catalog. They were excited to see all of the different varieties of tomatoes, flowers, and even plants they never heard of. We discussed varieties of seeds and what is best to grow in Wisconsin. Let's just say that everyone of them wanted to plant watermelon and cantaloupe. Not the best growing season for them here. So onto other vegetables that were planted in Mr. McGregor's garden that Peter ate and saw on his adventure. We found beans, lettuce, radish, and parsley...all the items he ate. Then we researched cabbage and onions what he saw. We want to create Mr. McGregor's theme garden with a scarecrow made of a blue jacket and brown shoes. We even have a ceramic bunny that is Peter. The tough thing now is to teach them what they could plant in one five by five raised garden. So check out what I did...(the veggies are not perfect, but the size is pretty close. They each got to be an expert on one veggie and then discussed why they should plant it in a particular spot). This made perfect sense and it was all up to them...not me! Ownership is key to veggie eating buy in!

Plotting Mr. McGregor's garden with second and third graders

We even plotted bush beans and pole beans. Great way to add math into your garden as well! Perimeter, area, square footage and more...

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Farm To School Fun!

This week, we started our Thomas Jefferson School Garden Club. We have 18 students from 2nd- 5th grade signed up to be our ambassadors of the garden. We started with a tour of the garden. The snow is almost gone...okay I looked again...today's rain took care of it all! This week, we learned about rotation farming and we set goals for bigger and better this year. We cleaned out the garden beds and even planted our first seeds of the season! We learned the importance of what we can learn from a seed packet and even learned that we are a zone three. Looks like no planting outside until May... we might sneak some seeds in the ground the last week of April like our radishes, peas, kale, and spinach. We have 16 raised beds and garden plots. Our compost is getting dumped off on Monday. We will be adding more beds to make sure this next school year we have veggies for our lunchroom!

Our Garden without plants and snow...it snowed today:(

3rd grade Bonnie Cabbage Competition is under way!

How are seeds the same and different...kinders now know!

Our garden goals for this year are:
Kinders are growing our pumpkin patch, firsties... the sunflower garden for our insects and butterflies...2nds are heading up the tomatoes, peppers, and squash plants that we will be planting in the garden. Our 3rd-5th graders will be working in the after school garden class to plant veggies that we will sell at our Plantapalooza event in May as well as making sure the rest of the seeds are planted in the ground in May.

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Planting A Seed...

I love what we have done for our Farm To School Garden Club. We are now done with the first 6 week course for our after school programs. So, to finish off our Garden Club right we had a tea party with mint, spearmint, chocolate mint, and pineapple mint to top off our tea...and who could go without tea sandwiches with veggies of course. We made homemade dip from our herbs and served cut veggies, too. We then finished it off with the Farm To School lesson Parts of A Plant. Next week, we will post our videos that are being placed in the libraries to pick great garden themed books. Also next week, what to do in winter...form a "winter"green club. We will be going green in another way, by getting our recycling efforts going, upcycling for the holidays, and composting waste in our worm bins! Stay tuned!

Mint tea and finger sandwiches. What a fun way to end our session!

 Yum, veggies rock and so does learning about the parts of a plant and then being able to taste them!

What can you do to make the winter go faster? Share your ideas my Farm To School Friends!

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Planting a Seed...

We met today as a farm to school group and we came up with a great idea to connect our farm to school sites...planting a seed. This is a way for people to leave comments and ideas for us to share. Each week, I will plant a seed of an activity or recipe we used in our after school or classroom curriculum that ties in our garden to life lessons. So here it goes, friends.

My first plant a seed...  comes to us through our need to include our high schools into our farm to school initiative. Today, we met with our high school Ag teachers and the food nutrition coordinator at our high schools.  The idea...We are growing cherry tomatoes this winter in our green houses. The tomatoes that we grow will be given to our lunchrooms as featured veggies and the Consumer Ed departments. The students will be using recipes to make things with tomatoes. Ideas were salsa and pasta salad. Our "woods" class could make raised beds, and our marketing classes could promote the products. Ag can promote that their club isn't just about cows or living on a farm, it is about gardening and more. Just some ideas for you as the cold weather brings us no fresh veggies, but time to plan for the spring.

Tomato Inspiration!

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Pumpkin Day Fun

How much did we have today! My after school class celebrated pumpkin day for our harvest of the month festival. We used some great resources from Mrs. Ricci's Kindergarten! We also read The Pumpkin Book by Gail Gibbons.



after doing a sequence activity and singing a song. Love this video!

Now, after reading the book and singing a song and even doing our sequence activity, we watched this great time lapsed video to watch the sequence in action.

We used this sheet for a cute book.

 Here is my little cousin in our after school class. You go Alli. Pumpkin Day rocks!

 Do pumpkins float or sink? Our little kiddos predicted, all said sink. We started with a small pumpkin...it floated. We put a medium pumpkin in the sink, it floated. Then, we put the big pumpkin in the sink, it overflowed and floated! The kids were amazed. We discussed why they float. We then cup open one of our pumpkins and it was HOLLOW! They got it!

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Harvest Is Over and The Garden is Bare:(

So, we dug out all of the plants in our school garden this week. It makes me sad to see it so bare. Now, I have to get creative. How can we keep the garden spirit alive. Well, for one, I get to go buy a greenhouse! Yea! Grants are great things. Then we can try to grow in the winter. (At least we can try) I am thinking lettuce, beets, carrots. I came up with another activity though to do in the winter as we start having to buy our produce from warmer places.

                                                                  Veggie Mapping

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Bean There, Done That

We tried bean and kale soup during our Garden Club Wednesday meeting. Holy moly... all but one student tried soup that had 5 types of beans, squash, celery, and kale in it. Take a look at the graph we had to extend because they loved it! Awesome!!!!! We went out to pick the rest of our kale and the kiddos took it home to share. This garden stuff really does make kids try new things! I will include the recipe for you to try yourself. Be brave, friends, veggies are good for you!

 We used this book with the little ones. It shares the process of growing a bean from seed. We sent home baggies with a bean wrapped in a paper towel and a piece of masking tape to watch them grow.

We made a graph to show what we thought of bean and kale soup. I was surprised as to how many kiddos actually liked it and even tried it. Yea! Take a look at how excited the kids are about picking kale and bringing it home! A lot of the kale didn't even make it home, they ate it right away!

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Paying Pickles Forward and More

Our garden has produced an amazing amount of vegetables. We have had an Open House, Open Garden picking which brought in over 200 people into our garden to reap the benefits of our planting. We also had a harvest gathering with over 145 people last week. We gathered vegetables and also ate together and had many presenters sharing garden cooking and more.

 What we want to teach our students is that it is great to get things, (picking veggies during club time, eating food that we make with harvested veggies...) but it is even better to give. We made pickles two weeks ago and now it is time to give to others. Our pickles are being given to our adult crossing guards and one jar is being given to our principal on Boss's Day on Wednesday. Our students in our Green Team Garden Club also picked a ton of cherry tomatoes as well. We made 22 bags of cherry tomatoes for our teachers. Here is the label that we used on the teacher bags. Our garden club enjoyed doing something nice for the teachers and others that help us grow.

Garden Thanks

 Our pickles we are paying forward. When we are in a pickle, we can always count on our crossing guards.

 We gathered a second harvest of dill. We are hanging it upside down so that we can use the dry dill to make dip this fall.

Some of our wonderful Green Team Garden Club with their new t-shirts!

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Our Harvest Gathering

Our school received a Farm To School Grant this year. We have a beautiful courtyard that wasn't getting used, so we added 12 raised beds, 5 mound beds, an herb garden, a strawberry patch and more. This is our second community harvest of the year. We invited our families in to harvest veggies, listen to presentations on safe routes to school, Project Jaguar (our at home reading program), our Public Health Department's nutritionist teaching easy veggie recipes, as well as eating together! We had over 140 people join us to celebrate Farm To School Month. Take a look at our Harvest...

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