First day of Spring Semester

Monday, the first day of the spring semester project, was unfortunately a rainy day, but it gave us the opportunity to get to know Mrs Hartman and Mrs Dorsey's second grade classes. The morning shift had a long enough dry spell to plant the eggplant and water a little. Mrs. Davis' class came out for a few minutes around noon and checked out what has sprouted, showing interest in what is growing and eagerness to participate in their tasks of watering and planting turnips. The rain started to come down heavily only a couple minutes after they came out though and they seemed a little disappointed to go back inside without getting their hands a little dirty.

It was still raining when Mrs. Hartman's second grade class was scheduled to come out. Instead, Kathy, Alex, Lauren, Dylan, Kaylie, Erica, and Professor Curtis spent some time in the science lab talking with the class. Kathy did a really wonderful job of incorporating the theme of the week, "respect" into our objectives with the garden. All of the kids had great ideas about how to respect each other and the garden and seemed eager to participate in caring for it. The kids were very talkative and had many questions about what we were growing. One especially talkative boy was excited to hear we are growing hot peppers but disappointed that there will be no bananas. They were very knowledgeable in the biological aspects of growing food, such as what a plant needs to survive and flourish. When we told them that there was horse poo underneath the soil they all groaned in disgust but we assured them that they would never see it or smell it and that the plants love it. Hopefully the weather will clear up so they can go outside and see the magic in action!

During the break between classes, Alex, Kathy, and Lauren worked on the whiteboard, trying to recreate two-dimensionally the garden. We labeled where, what, and when we have planted and listed what was in the greenhouse. Then Mrs. Dorsey's class came in and we talked to them about "respect" as well. They were just as talkative and interested in the garden. Many of them knew the importance and functions of bees. Maxine explained very nicely what compost was and we told them what could and couldn't go into the pile.

Overall, it was a productive and fun day even though we couldn't go outside. It's probably good to recognize and remember early on that even though we have planned and organized the project as much as possible, we cannot and will never be able to control the weather. Besides, all of the plants love and need the rain!