Garden Party

Because of some very dedicated and wonderful parent volunteers all the fifth grade classes enjoyed a gardening day today. Students gathered the harvest of the planting Mr. Schwindt and his class did at the beginning of summer. Students performed some basic garden maintenance, adding soil, weeding and watering. We also planted a winter vegetable garden and planted seeds for a beautiful butterfly garden which will bloom in spring.

Watering the herb garden

Harvesting the carrots

Getting a little dirty

Adding new soil

Mmmm...

Planting for spring

Harvesting the sunflowers

Composting

Gardening is fun!

Maintenance crew

Lil' helper

Planting

Sunflower seeds

Getting ready to water

Sowing for spring

Getting really dirty

Trimming the herbs

Special Delivery!

Yesterday afternoon saw the delivery of a very important parcel for fifth grade. Inside were our precious little caterpillars, patiently waiting to meet the students who would care for them for the next few weeks. Today we each got our own caterpillar in a little container at our desk. The little containers are filled with the caterpillars' food and leave plenty of room for the caterpillar to get around. We watched an introduction video about butterflies and we are all excited to complete more research. We began a butterfly journal. Each day we plan on documenting what we see happening with our caterpillars. Not too far in the future, we know they will be turning into painted lady butterflies. Let the journey begin! (Check out the butterfly link under the "Science Links" section of the blog).

September: Jumping Off Point

Well, our first batch of projects are in and the results are...FANTASTIC! Don't take my word for it, take a look for yourself. Please enjoy this sampling of our "What's In a Name?" research projects, our "Treasures" writing projects, and our "Life Cycles" poster projects.