Thursday, February 18, 2010

Going Native

We had a day where more than minds were growing in room 19. Today we planted our California Native Plant Demonstration Garden.

A couple weeks ago, our existing sword ferns and canna lilies were transplanted to new homes. Yesterday, after school, several volunteers helped amend the soil by adding wonderfully smelling organic matter. They had a good time with this!

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Today, under the leadership of the ever-amazing Alysoun Higgins, the students worked in groups of four to plant the new plants.

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They dug holes and planted the plants carefully.

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They created watering berms around the new plants to help them hold in the extra moisture they will need until they are fully established.

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Our native plant garden will help the students to understand the marvelous natural flora of our state. Native plants support native wildlife; they consume far less water; they have minimal need for chemical fertilizers or pesticides.

It is our hope that this garden will become an inspiration to the rest of the school, and this will be the beginning of remaking the Third Street School grounds into a predominately-native landscape.

A big, big thank you to Alysoun Higgins and Laura Salwet for planning the garden and selecting the plants. A huge thank you to our wonderful Third Street PTA which funded this learning experience.

Homework: (1) Review the spelling words. (2) Do “Adding and Subtracting Fractions with Like Denominators,” envision Math, pages 253-255.

Students will also be working on the rough draft of a story. This is not due until Monday, so I will provide more details and explanation on Friday’s blog post.

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