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This mother's day, gardeners enjoyed time to connect with our garden and tools outside before coming inside to discuss what it is to be a mother 👩‍👧🩵👩‍👧🩵👩‍👧

They shared heartfelt instances of when they experienced motherly care and we ended by making cards for our loved ones 🥰🌍🫵🏻

Happy Mother's Day from the garden to you ₍ᐢ. .ᐢ₎ ₊˚⊹♡

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Today was another fantastic day playing Garden Sweep, where gardeners searched the garden for hidden and dirty tools in order to learn how to clean and maintain them 📝🧺🚿

Gardeners got to watch demonstrations on how each of our tools are used and grouped up for a sound game to remember names and motions associated with each tool 😎🤙🏻🔊

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The gardeners showed their individual flair through the notes the took from our 5 Common Garden Tools lesson 💡✨

We opened conversations on what we enjoyed using each tool for in the garden and got to explore the different ways that they can be utilized 🤔📝☝️

We all made sketches of which garden tool was our favorite and what we enjoy using them for

✎ᝰ.🤍

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Gardeners continued this Tuesday with our Garden Sweep game in order to learn how to take care of and clean the tools we love to use in the garden, as well as learning the functions of each tool 🧠⚙️💭

Whenever an educational lesson has a fun and active component, it's always so exciting to see minds awaken and take in information in new ways (˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶)

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Gardeners opened up this week learning about the different tools that we most commonly see in the garden: Trowels, Hand Rakes, Towels, Garden Gloves, and Pruners 🧰🧤♥️

We ran an activity where gardeners had to find and clean garden tools hidden around the garden in order to secure points 🏆👀

This was to give them the necessary skills to upkeep and care for the tools we use every day in our garden and they had a great time doing it ✮⋆˙⋆˙✮

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Gardeners had the opportunity to settle into our garden space today. Some of their favorite activities included exploring our soil observation station with trowels crunching into dirt and finding a quiet area to sit on a stool and listen to the world around them 🌱😌🕳️🪏🌱

We ended the day by coming together and creating trading cards of the animals around us. We admired each other's cards and even traded to have a piece of each other's creativity and knowledge always with us ദ്ദി(ᵔᗜᵔ)

What native New York animal card did your little gardener bring home this week?

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Gardeners had another wonderful day in garden afterschool, this time learning about native animals and their roles ⭐

We crushed eggshells to be used to give nutrients back to our soil and exercised our creativity by creating trading cards for animals native to New York 🥚✨🃏✨🥚

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Gardeners produced their own trading cards based off of the native animals that live in New York alongside us 🏘️🦝🏘️

The snapping turtle was a popular favorite today, making appearances next to ladybugs, red spotted purple butterflies, and brook trouts 🐞🦋🐟︎

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We continued our Native New York Animal trading card lessons, learning about our neighboring species with creativity, openness, and confidence in the knowledge we have 🧠💭✨

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We started this week off right with some hands on challenges in the garden and creating our very own native New York animal trading cards 🪏🎴🗽

Gardeners spent time outside emptying a garden bed's soil so it could be moved for a new garden plan. They got to use garden tools and practice working as a team to accomplish the task together 👥🤜🤛👥

We then went indoors for a lesson on all the native animals throughout our 5 New York Burroughs 🖐𓃥𓆉𓆏𓃯

From worms to beavers and squirrels to cockroaches, gardeners had a blast creating their own Native New York animal cards and even trading with each other

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Gardeners wrapped up this beautiful week with more observational drawing, as well as doing garden chores such as bagging the soil from one of the beds, watering the trees, and weeding. Many more worms were found and named, as well as Susan the Roly Poly and Beep the Robin. Gardeners practiced staying calm and quiet so that the birds could share the garden with us, and stayed brave when we were visited by some curious bees! ⋆˚🐝˖° 🦜𖢥

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Gardeners continued their practice of observational drawing with the garden bingo activity, familiarizing themselves with what it means to be a native member of an ecosystem and community. This time, Mr. Dante featured several times in the gardener's drawings as Wood's classic American Gothic...👨‍🌾

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Today, gardeners explored the sensory qualities of soil by using the soil exploration beds, making soil sculptures, turning compost, and creating seed balls. Many worms were found and named: Long, Jimbly, and Sassy Kassie were among the standouts! 🪱🐛

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Today, we all participated in a fun garden drawing bingo created by Mr. Dante, where gardeners applied what they learned about native species and observation to discover the many ways our garden plants look different from each other! 🐞🌱🧐𓂃🪶

Gardeners drew each other during the activity, too, because we are all members of the garden community!

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This week we investigated what native species are, and we enjoyed the sprouting garden as it wakes up from its winter nap! Gardeners practiced their observation skills as we identified the birds and bugs that are rediscovering the garden with us. 🦋 Pictured here is a cabbage white moth that visited one lucky gardener's hand! Later, the gardeners invented new native species of their own and tried to fit them into the ecosystems we all call home.

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Today we made a deeper study into the bird calls and sounds that we here the most from our native birds. We listened and mimicked blue jays, mourning doves, robins, sparrows, red-tailed hawks, cardinals, grackles, and crows!

We then went to the garden and had a mindful few minutes to watch for birds that visited us and share what we noticed. What birds we saw, what colors they were, what they were doing

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We assembled teams to harvest and prepare our violet lemonade! Washing, juicing, straining, and steeping our ingredients are important and helpful skills our gardeners got to take part in during this class wide recipe

We all worked together and enjoyed the full day, also taking time to hand water our plants as this warm weather begins to fall upon us

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Gardeners continued to make observations around the garden that boosted all of our connection to nature and what we can be a part of

whether gardeners were watching mourning doves from behind a tree or feeling a worm wriggle across their hand, we cherished mindfulness and connection together this Wednesday

We closed our day y making our own birdhouses. Gardners got to put bird seed within the birdhouses to welcome our native birds to our space

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Gardeners spent time slowing down and appreciating the garden and all that the world has to offer us

From exploring soil, finding our fellow garden critters, making observational drawings of our garden plants, and creating miniature bouquets from garden weeds and flowers

We even got to see some of our native birds visiting us: Sparrows, Mourning Doves, and more flying about the city sky. We followed a bird call lesson with Mr. Tyler, listening to the specific sounds that birds use to communicate

We ended our session by making origami birds, talking about the colors of our birds and how to faithfully represent a species

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This week we took a look into native New York birds!

We began our garden session by collecting violets for a garden favorite: Violet Lemonade

Gardeners picked, cleaned, and processed the violets to create the lemonade treat. We enjoyed the warming weather with each other in the beauty of the garden before making clay birds to bring home

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Today our young gardeners lesson about soil. The young gardeners had a hands on experience in the rooftop garden with the soil. Some of the young gardeners took turn chopping the compost and other crushed eggshells to use as fertilizer for the soil.

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What is soil?

Today our young gardeners will learn about soil. The gardeners will learn that soil is more than dirt. This lesson is a fun and hands on experience that can spark curiosity about the natural world. Soil is made up of tiny pieces of rock, plant matter air, and water all working together to help plants grow. This lesson help our young gardeners understand why soil is importantly for food, ecosystems and the environment.

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Gardeners were encouraged to research specific plants that have needs for certain nutrients in our garden 🍅😋🍅

Gardeners chose one of four plants to draw and discover the household ingredients that we can add to support the healthy growth of our sprouts

🌱ᕙ( •̀ ᗜ •́ )ᕗ🌱

We then took to the garden and planted two crops that we will look forward to seeing sprout as Spring and Summer arrive: Carrots & Radishes 🫜𐔌՞. .՞𐦯🥕

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We were able to spend our entire day's schedule out on the rooftop garden today!

🕊️🕊️🕊️

We celebrated by connecting again with the many parts of our now living, active garden together while learning how caring community members can create shared, supportive spaces and experiences

💚𐦂𖨆𐀪𖠋💚

From helping process compost, to being stewards for the many garden creatures we are coming to know, we took moments to settle into our space in the Spring season 🐝🌸🪴🐌

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Our gardeners connected with each other and their sense of creative expression by drawing themselves as an emoji before our lessons today. We had short discussions about how we feel and how the activity made us feel together ✍🤪🥰🤩💡

We then got to review soil nutrients, what compostable ingredients contain these nutrients, and how adding nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium and calcium to soil can improve plant health and growth during our upcoming Spring season 🌱🔄🥦

Gardeners ended this beautiful day by exploring and connecting with each other in our rooftop garden slowly filling with green from our gardener's tender care and diligent upkeep 🫶🫶🫶

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Today in garden we explored the most common ingredients that add essential nutrients to healthy and capable soil 💪👌

We got our hands on crushed eggshells, coffee grounds, and blood meal. We discussed the different attributes of these materials rich in calcium and nitrogen while describing them with our five senses

👀👃🖐️(˶˃ ᵕ ˂˶)👂

As a final activity before going out to explore the garden together, we used one of our favorite tools, the mortar and pestle to crush egg shells into tiny particles to be mixed with garden soil this season 🌲🏫🌲

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Today our gardeners followed a soil health lesson with Mr. Dante and a spring crops lesson with Mr. Tyler, learning about how to keep a garden healthy as it wakes up from wintertime ☔🌱🐇

Gardeners learned about the vital nutrients plants need to grow, and how to give young plants extra support while they try to grow strong! 🪴💪🌾

Mr. Dante also notified our gardeners that we are taking donations of eggshells to help us provide calcium and phosphates to our growing garden 🐣ᜈ🥚

The lesson ended with our gardeners reflecting on what helps them supplement their own strength, motivation, and resilience! 💪💡🛡️

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Our gardeners are back in action, having fun in the garden, learning about their built and natural environments.

Check out some of the wonderful projects our amazing educators create for students!

You can help us create even bigger learning opportunities by sponsoring some needed items form our Donors Choose list! 🔬📚📓🖌️✏️🖍️ 🔬📚📓🖌️✏️🖍️

As we are not fully grant supported, all of our costs—including our educators, and program supplies,—are primarily covered by enrollment fees. Your support helps us continue to grow and expand hands-on, meaningful experiences for all of our students. 🌱

Thank you for being part of our community and helping our young gardeners thrive!

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Today the gardeners followed a companion planting lesson with Ms. Margaret as our garden begins to warm up and will eventually be filled with plants and people that help each other in small ways

❀🐞🌱🤍

Gardeners got to plan out their own dream garden with the information that some plants help and support others through keeping away pests, providing structural support, and putting nutrients back into their shared soil! 🙌❤︎👐

We also spent time reflecting on the people around us that are our "companions" - Parents, siblings, friends, teachers, it felt warm to acknowledge how we are supported every day by our loved ones 💕𖠋𖠋𖠋💕

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Today our young gardeners learned about one of our spring garden plants, strawberries ☺️♥️

Strawberries grow very low to the ground with tiny seeds on the outside. They learned the process of how strawberries turn from green to bright red and how they can be used in a recipe to make strawberry jam 🍓🍯

We also took time to make observations in our garden that is showing signs of growth right before the Spring Equinox, discussing the sensory experiences we feel as the season changes and making observations and drawings of these changes together 🧊🔀🦋

Here’s an easy strawberry jam recipe to try at home

2 cups of strawberry (Hulled and mashed)

3/4 cup sugar

1 tbs of lemon

1. Combine all ingredients is a saucepan.

2. Cook over medium heat stirring often until the mixture thickens (15-20 minutes).

3. Let it cool, then store in a jar in the fridge.

Enjoy Spring and the taste of learning with homemade strawberry jam 🍓

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Today our gardeners got hands on experience turning soil and adding fresh layers to the garden beds. There’s something special about watching them learn where food begins and taking a big part in replenishing our garden

🙌⤵🌱

With patience, teamwork and a little bit of mud, they got the job done ✅✧٩(ˊᗜˋ )و✧✅

We celebrated with creating connections through interactive play in the garden and transplanted some of our upcoming sprouts for the Spring season! 💪🌱📈

Growing more than just plants here 💚🧠💚

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Today our gardeners learned about companion plants, bringing science, sustainability, and teamwork into the garden ❤️𐦂𖨆𐀪𖠋❤️

Companion plants are different plants that can grow together to help with growth and keep away those insects that cause harm

⚠️🐜⚠️

By pairing plants that support each other like tomatoes with basil 🍅🌿 or carrots with onions 🥕🧅 our gardeners learned how our ecosystem thrives through cooperation.

It’s more than gardening, it’s a living lesson on balance, biodiversity and thoughtful planning 🤔🗓️✍

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This Friday we invited gardeners to practice a breathing exercise in the beauty of the garden that helps us calm down in moments that we need it most

( ˘͈ ᵕ ˘͈♡)

We then took an explorative and creative adventure around the garden, opening our minds to play and connection with each other ⭒˚𖠋𖠋𖠋*.⋆

Gardeners returned at ease to the classroom and got to try dehydrated oranges, snapping the dry, healthy snacks in two before making observations on the smells, tastes, and posing questions about the citrus fruit 🍊👀😋

We even did an experiment where we soaked the dry oranges in boiled water to see it come back to life right in front of our scientific eyes 😮🔬 ᥣιfᥱ g᥆ᥱ᥉ ᥆ᥒ

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On this prose day, gardeners embraced learning about dehydrating citrus fruits and making their own lotions with added scents

🍊🍋🍋‍🟩🤍🎀🧴🌷

It was an overall wellness day, connecting with our senses and the ways we can support ourselves with the help of nature 🌿(˶>⩊<˶)🌱

We even took time to be outside in the garden, spending free time to draw, explore, and become familiar with our wonderful space as the Winter season comes to a close ❄️👋😊🌻☀️

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Today our older gardeners learned about George Washington Carver and his contributions to garden education while our younger gardeners talked about how they felt taking deep breaths and their favorite activities in nature

༄˖°.👨‍🌾😌🍂.ೃ࿔*:･

Our gardeners were amazed to learn that George Washington Carver used peanuts 🥜 and sweet potatoes 🍠 to create hundreds of useful products and how he dedicated his life to helping farmers succeed. His story opens great conversation about creativity, resilience, and using your talents to help others 👏⭐💯🙏

By the end of the day, we got to see the sweetest drawings and expressions of love for nature, along with observations and predictions on how our seedlings will continue to grow this season 🌱🤩💭

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There’s something powerful about taking meditation outside with our young gardeners. 🦅 🌳 ✈️ 💨 ☀️

When our gardeners sit quietly under the open sky, listening to birds 🐦 feeling the breeze 💨 and taking in the warmth of the sun, mindfulness becomes real and tangible. Nature gives them natural anchors, the sound of leaves, the smell of fresh air 🍃👃🍃

Outdoor meditation helps our gardeners regulate their emotions, build focus, and connect with the world around them in a calm, meaningful way ✨🕊️✨

Even just five minutes outside can reset the energy of their whole day and build real connections between educators and students. As the season warms, we look forward to spending more time implementing outdoor education and meditations 🧠🧘💬

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Today our young gardeners explored ethnobotany, made their own lotions, and explored dried citrus fruits 🌱🌍🌱

Ethnobotany is the study of how people and cultures use plants in their daily life. We talked about how plants can be used for food, medicine, art, and traditions around the world. We then went out into the garden and had mindful moments, listening to the sounds around us 🔊😌🌿

It was a wonderful way to connect with science, culture, and curiosity while helping our gardeners see that plants and nature are important parts of human history and everyday life 🪴🍄🌲🌵

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This Friday we had a beautiful farewell to our chia seed tree craft, where we would join pieces of recycled cardboard with wheat paste and turn them into fun planting vessels for our quick germinating chia seeds 🌱♻️🌍

Gardeners then had the opportunity to make observational drawings and log how our class' cucumber plants are doing, even getting to use electronic microscopes to take a closer look at leaves 🔍👀🔬

We ended our day by transplanting our cucumber plants to bigger pots, giving them the space they so desperately needed. Great job gardeners! 🪏🩶🪏

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Gardeners began this week learning about chia seeds and how they germinate quickly compared to other seeds 🌱🌱🌱

We then had two groups making two different chia seed based crafts 🎨🖌️👩🏻‍🎨

one room made chia seed cup characters that will grow a full head of chia sprouts within a week! The kids got creative, using googly eyes, colored tissue paper, and markers to decorate their characters. See slide 2 for a resulting character 🎭👀🎭

The other room made cardboard creatures and creations using wheat paste to join pieces together and got to paint their chia seeds where they wanted them to grow. See slide 4 for some resulting chia creations 👾👾👀👾👾

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Before today’s lesson, our gardeners had the chance to taste chia pudding made right here in the classroom 🍮🥄˚₊‧

The chia pudding was soaked overnight and included chia seeds in milk, a little vanilla extract, and honey. The gardeners had the option to add cinnamon and freshly cut strawberries 🍯ʚ🍓ɞ🍯

Today’s lesson came with an awesome experiment that the young gardeners can take care of on their own. They made their chia tree using cardboard, home made wheat paste and soaked chia seeds 🌲✨🌲✨🌲

After creating a forest of chia trees together, the gardeners wound down with various crafts including popsicle sticks weaves together with yarn, creating their own pockets of peace and connection

❤️🤝😌🤝❤️

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Today our older gardeners made observations of the crops we're growing in our classroom grow tower and made their own predictions on when the plants will sprout and how they will look when they're mature 💭🌱🤔🌱💭

Our younger gardeners participated in a lesson on the crops we're growing this Spring season, choosing to focus on broccoli and taking beautiful and informative notes, honing their knowledge of what we're growing and showing off their note taking abilities 🤩📝🥦

We then grouped together and constructed cardboard trees with wheat paste that we then seeded with chia seeds 🌲🌿🌳

Tell us how your trees are sprouting at home over this next week - Chia Seeds are known for rapid growth, with visible green shoots often appearing within 3 to 5 days. Optimal germination occurs in warm, moist conditions ❤️‍🔥🥰❤️‍🔥

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This Friday are gardeners got to create their very own vegetable stamps and used paint this time to create natural beauty in their vegetable prints 🍃˚.⛰️⋆☁️

Look closely and try to tell which vegetables they used ❓👀❓

We all planted seeds for our upcoming growing season after finishing our vegetable paintings ☑️🌱✅

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Our gardeners returned from our NYC snow day to explore the wonderful world of vegetable stamps 🫑📩

Cutting from a variety of bell peppers, potatoes, and miniature corns, gardeners created natural stamps to use in print making, letting their creativity bloom

💚ʚ🌱✧💚

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Today the gardeners continued to learn about art through the lens of food and our cultures, using different vegetables to cut into stamps and painting tools that brought expression to the forefront 🥬🥦🥰🫑🌶️

The gardeners loved this hands-on experience. They blended creativity and curiosity, finding fresh ways of seeing art in all that is around us 🖼️👀🥕

Our experienced older gardeners continued making individual art prints to take home and be proud of while our wonderful younger gardeners made a beautiful banner that we will proudly hang in our garden classroom as a constant reminder that joy is always a moment away ヾ( ˃ᴗ˂ )◞ • *✰

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Today our young gardeners explored the art hidden in some of our everyday foods 🌽🫑🥔

The gardeners used potatoes, small corns and bell peppers to cut and slice into different shapes to create unique stamps to use with ink and paper, creating their very own vegetable art pieces -ˋˏ✄┈🖼️

They discovered how different shapes, textures and patterns can turn simple ingredients into beautiful prints 🥹❤️

We then had the exciting opportunity to plant seeds for our Spring and Summer gardens. Tomatoes, peppers, and much more are on their way, courtesy of our wonderful gardeners

🧑🏿‍🌾🧑🏻‍🌾👩🏽‍🌾👨🏾‍🌾👩🏻‍🌾🧑🏽‍🌾

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Today we reminded our garden students that they are budding SCIENTISTS by showing them that their garden journals are a way to log what they are learning, explore topics they are interested in, and reflect on their days and emotions experienced 🌱👩🏻‍🔬🔍

We want gardeners to not only feel comfortable in our garden program, but empowered to make choices that impact what they are capable of and are knowledgable of 🧠(..◜ᴗ◝..)🦋

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We gave gardeners extra time to work on their journals and make sure their personalities and interests shined bright on their covers 😎🌟🤩

We then spent our free time working on letters to our future selves, a little act of love that will return to us at the end of the year 🕊️🤍✨

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We jumped in to another full day of journal discussions, again speaking about how we can use our journals in ways to save information and emotions we have around garden lessons ٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و 💚

We even gave some great alternatives to returning gardeners to draw their friends in the afterschool and bonus points for drawing a garden educator with them too ⋆🌱˙𖠋𖠋👩🏻‍🏫𖠋𖠋⋆🌱˚

We got to observe the heartwarming results and used our stamp sets to decorate and personalize our journals even more ᯓ⭐

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Gardeners discussed how they can use their journals in fun and creative ways and how we can make the best out of the space we have on each page 𐙚📜✩

They also had the opportunity to begin Valentine's cards, not only for their parents and the people around them, but for nature and the places they feel comfortable in ❤️🏠❤️

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Today we opened discussions about what we know and enjoy about our garden journals

༘⋆🌷💭✎ᝰ📓 ˎˊ˗

Garden journals are an essential tool for our students to take notes on lessons, make observations, express their emotions, and look back on a years worth of knowledge and growth ˚🌱 .

We ended the day by bringing snow inside and getting creative by painting snow blocks in pairs

🎨❄️☃️🖌️

The results deserved to be displayed and gardeners got to choose stickers from our new sticker set up 🏅⭐🏅

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Coming together one last time as a community this week, gardeners grouped up to collaboratively chop vegetables and made a delicious vegetable pasta combination

🥬𓐐𓎩🥕𓌉◯𓇋🥒

We even got to learn about the importance of water drainage in soil and talk about two kinds of seeds - cover crop and wildflowers 🌱.ೃ࿔🌸🌱

We made our own self draining trays by using stones and perlite on the bottom of our soil and each gardener got to sprinkle their choice of both seeds once we were all done! 𓇢𓆸 𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧

We are all so excited to see how these seeds grow and expand - just like our minds during each day in the garden 🧠✨

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The young gardeners learned about random recipes. Meaning foods that you wouldn’t typically mix together. Before recipe books 📚 people used to just mix together whatever they could harvest or buy for cooking 🍳 meals.

After learning about different foods that were mixed together to make a 🍽️ meals. The young gardeners played a game of “would you eat this?” It was very interesting 🤔 to see the different types of food that aren’t normally mixed together but the gardeners would give it a try.

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Happy Ground Hog Day! 🐻

On this prose day gardeners explored how food is medicine 🥘

Its been very cold so we spent the day making warm chicken noodle soup to warm up, eat healthy and feel strong!

Everyone worked as a team to cut up celery, carrots, potatoes, and garlic. Everything was then cooked up in nutritious veggie broth with fusilli pasta. Students were then given the option to add chicken!

We ended our day with a conversation about food and how were connected to it.

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Today the gardeners continued their food cultural 🌏 experience. The gardeners cut carrots 🥕 🥕and celery into small pieces and place them inside a 🥣 bowl. After they finished their job they began to clean up 🧽 . The cut carrots 🥕 🥕 and celery was given to one of the educators to finish. The educator cooked the celery and carrots 🥕 🥕 until tender then places some noodles 🍜and spices 🧂 🌿 There was some already cooked shredded chicken 🐓 added but only for the gardeners who wanted it. 🥘 bon a petit 🥘 🍴

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Today the young gardeners discussed different foods 🍱 and their origins 🌍 . They talked bout the different foods they like and where they originated from. They also learned of foods their fellow gardeners 👦👧 like and the origins of the food.

They talked about different traditions that eat different foods 🥘 during holidays or special occasions.

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Today the gardeners learned about snow flakes and how it is formed. We experienced a snow storm Sunday evening that affected all New Yorkers, old and young. So why not learned about how snow is formed and what cloud produces it.

Snow is formed when the temperature is below 32 degrees in high clouds ☁️. Water vapor 💦 turns into ice 🧊 crystals that are formed around tiny dust particles in the air. These crystals then freezes together making a six sided crystal that falls when it becomes heavy.

Today activity is making snow flakes out of paper. All you need is paper and scissors. The gardeners fold and cut the paper into tiny shapes to create a unique shape that is similar to a snow ❄️ flake.

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Types of clouds cont.

Today we talked about Stratus clouds. Stratus clouds are low altitude, horizontal sheet like clouds. It’s a dull grey color that resemble fog but higher up. Stratus clouds makes the day sometime look gloomy that can produce a light mist, drizzle or snow.

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Types of Clouds

Today the gardeners will learn about different types of clouds and how they can help farmers and gardeners with their growing needs. Today we talked about cirrus clouds.

Cirrus clouds- high altitude, wispy, white clouds composed entirely of ice crystals that form delicate, feathery or hair like strands.

What does cirrus clouds look like? They look like air moving around, someone loosing their hair, broken crystals, bird with feathers.

What happened this Sunday? As the day started on Sunday it wasn’t snowing in the morning and later that day the chance of snow increased. Then later on Sunday it began to snow.

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This Friday we got to discuss our favorite stories and brainstormed what every story should have 🧚📖⚔️

The gardeners impressed with their knowledge of story elements and then got to sew their own story characters, telling of their adventures as their characters began to form

We also had gardeners create pop up books inspired by the fables we heard today and throughout the week, rounding off a beautiful and creative week filled with connection ❤️🖇️👀

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Today’s topic: Can Poems Protect Nature?

The gardeners started off the afternoon by talking about rhyming words. We wrote rhyming word pairs and made our own rhyming sentences and stories with them. This was fun 😁

The gardeners learned about Henry Thoreau, an American essayist, poet, philosopher, naturalist and social reformer. They also engaged with the words of Malala Yousafzai and Matsuo Bashō, writers who grappled with the topics of social reform and nature's beauty ˖𓍢ִ໋🌷͙֒✧🩷˚.

After an introduction to Henry Thoreau and other writers who have changed how we see our world, our young gardeners got to write haikus, short stories, and rhyming sentences 😊

The gardeners began to put their poetic skills to work and wrote truly great poems 📜🪶

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Today's group of gardeners talked about fables.

The gardeners got the chance to hear two new stories that were passed down from generation to generation. Now they can pass on the stories they’ve heard today to their families. The stories that were read today, “The Man and The Lion" 👨🦁 and “Two Crabs" 🦀 🦀 both had practical lessons about life.

With so many stories to tell, why not just write one ourselves?

The gardeners were asked to come up with their own fable or short story, no more than five sentences. The stories that were written were beautiful, heartfelt, and imaginative. Some are captured here in this post 👀🤎

Give a like 👍🏽 for the hard work the young gardeners put into creating these wonderful short stories

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Today we reviewed our "Garden Goals" lesson, with returning gardeners able to help explain the concepts of our goal projects to our Friday gardeners 👩‍🏫📓✍🏻

As our fresh gardeners worked on their goals, returning students had the chance to customize their own pocket holders for their goal "punch cards" in their notebooks

📝📓

We also had the chance to plant some of the seeds that we made goals to plant this week, and are actively working on bettering our gardening skills together

🌱✨🪴

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Today we welcomed our Thursday group of gardeners to think on what skills or goals they wanted to work towards this year with us in the garden ᯓ★ 🙌🏻

From sharing our own garden related goals to hearing about all the different things our gardeners wanted to accomplish, we all gained insight into who we are and how we relate to those around us *⭒𖠋𖠋𖠋⭒*

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Gardeners welcomed the day with bright ideas about their own goals for the garden, thinking about tasks that would bring them value through action and education 📚🍀💡

We've also been motivating gardeners to come up with related rewards to their garden goals, such as if a gardener watered his plants in the morning all week, he could sleep in on Sunday! 📊💭📈

We even got to take a trip into the Winter garden as the sun set, enjoying seeing how our garden has changed since the beginning of the year ˚✿°🔄༄.°

Gardeners and educators alike have been learning valuable lessons on the nature of creating goals with built-in rewards

✨💡🌟

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On this wonderful prose day, gardeners learned about the origins and practices of growing rice and we also had discussions about New Years traditions in our families and around the world

🎇2026🎆

As part of our rice lesson, we engaged students with cooking and forming rice krispie treats together, focusing on the process of the rice forming with the marshmallows to create the snack

🍚˚ ࿔*:🌾

As part of our New Years traditions lesson, students had the opportunity to make their own festive paper lanterns, diligently piecing together a globe of tissue paper and getting to form them into a colorful keepsake to always remember this meaningful prose day ✨🕯️🏮🕯️✨

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Today the gardeners learned about different types of stories. The gardeners discussed the types of stories they know 🧠💭

Then the gardeners listen to two different stories read by the teacher, 📖 “Two Frogs” and “The Peacock’s Complaint” 📖 while another group listened to "The Giving Tree"

Finally they were asked to make their own story 📝

The gardeners enjoyed making their own story 📒

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Starting this week's lesson, we began by talking about "Garden Goals", a project focusing on our gardener's aspirations and desires for this year in the garden 💯🌱🎯

From growing specific plants, eating various vegetables and fruits, to personal and inspiring goals, gardeners made "punch cards" to remember and work towards these goals over the next few weeks 🥬. ݁₊🌻⊹🌷. ݁˖🍅

We will continue to revisit and help gardeners accomplish their worthy gardener goals ♡´･ᴗ･`♡

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Our Friday gardeners tackled a day of learning about our solstices, how the changing seasons affects us, and even connecting the time of year with how much sunlight we receive ₊˚ʚ 🔆🌎 ˚✧ ﾟ.

After our solstice lesson, we got hands-on with a lesson on the cucumbers that have been growing under grow lights in our classroom 💡🥒✨

Gardeners repotted some of our growing sprouts and explored what these cucumber plants will need when Spring comes ⏳.𖥔 ݁🌷

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Gardeners enjoyed learning about the solstices during the first Thursday back

˚🍃✧.💚˚

We opened discussions about the Winter and Summer solstices, talking about the passage of time and how this plays a part in planting times and what vegetables are available to us 🕓🥕🍓🥬🍎🕗

We also had the opportunity to review what is in the garden at this time and even had observations of our cucumber plants that we are nursing in the classroom over the Winter ε(´｡•᎑•`)っ🥒☃️

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We continued the first week of our New Year by exploring our solstice lesson and sharing our hopes, plans, and goals for this year 🗓‪‪❤︎‬👀

Gardeners took diligent notes and offered inquisitive questions about the solstices and how time passes in different ways

🌸☀️🍂❄️

We also made star, sun, and moon mobiles in which we wrote our hopes, plans, and goals we shared with each other 𐦂✎ᝰ.📓

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Our group of gardeners embraced learning about the solstices and how time passes in different ways. From days, to months and then years, we talked about what happens in these times and what we enjoy during these changes ⏳.𖥔 ݁ ˚❆

Our bright and creative gardeners also had the chance to share what they know they're doing this year, what they want to do this year, and what they would want to continue from last year 🗓.ೃ࿔ ✈︎ *👀

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We welcomed our wonderful gardeners back and celebrated the New Year together with a lesson on the solstice

🌙✨☀️

Gardeners discussed ways to mark time and New Years in different cultures, also recognizing how our yearly calendar can mark the seasons and how this can help with planting and gardening plans

⋆₊🌱⋆ ☾👥𖤓 ⋆⁺₊🌱⋆

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Gardeners did their part inside and outside the classroom gathering pots to transplant seedlings we planted two weeks ago! We've been observing how they've slowly sprouted from the ground and are forming essential structures for growth 🌿👀📊

We ended the week with another group mushroom meal and reflected on our accomplishments in the garden classroom

❤️👩🏻‍🏫❤️

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Today we had conversations about the different ways that living things can communicate. Building on the idea that mushrooms are able to communicate through their mycelium network, we saw how there are many unique ways that other living things can talk, even without words! 🦎🗣️🌱🐝

We then played a great activity where gardeners had to pass a ball of yarn in an unknown order, directed by their classmates without using words! We saw how we could communicate as a community, just like in nature

𓍯𓂃🧶

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Today gardeners engaged in lessons on fungi and the mycelium network! We learned how mushrooms can use their networks of roots to communicate and share nutrients 🍄₊🤝₊🍄

We then got to prepare and cook our own mushrooms! The gardeners excelled and practiced diligence when cutting and learning about the science behind mushrooms as we cooked 🔪🍄‍🟫🧬🧪

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The young gardeners started the afternoon with a review of what they've learned and what they know about mushrooms 📓✍🏻💡

They learned about different types of mushrooms and their origins as well as the different parts and functions of the fungi body. Fun fact: There are over 14000 species of mushrooms, some speculating it’s in the millions 🍄♾️🍄‍🟫

Today our gardeners got the chance to taste three different types of mushrooms! Shiitake, Oysters mushrooms and white mushrooms. They cut the mushrooms into small pieces and Ms Emma cooked it with just a little salt and olive oil. Delicious!!

😋ᵞᵁᴹᴹᵞ😋

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Today the young gardeners explored the world of “Fungi” (mushrooms). The gardeners talked about different mushrooms they know of and also learned about some they haven’t heard of before 🍄𓋼𓍊🍄‍🟫𓍊𓋼🍄𓋼𓍊🍄‍🟫𓍊𓋼🍄

A mushroom is a bearing fruiting body of fungus that’s typically produced above ground on soil

🌲⁺˚°🍄⋆₊｡🌲

Fun fact: Mushrooms are fascinating fungi, more closely related to animals than plants, that act as nature's recyclers, can glow in the dark, and even form the world's largest living organism in Oregon 🍄‍🟫🖇️🐖

To be continued on more of the young gardeners growth ✨

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The students enjoyed a tasty evening treat, pancakes. The students poured, mixed and cooked (with assistance) their pancakes. This was a fun activity that everyone enjoyed

🙌(˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶) 🙌

Gardeners have also been engaging in lessons on the Bialowieza forest, an ancient forest in Poland whose original form and wildlife is being protected to this day 🌲🌳🌲🌳🌲

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On this beautiful prose day, we invited our wonderful routine gardeners and familiar friends in an embrace of community, education, and hands-on learning 👉🌱👐

From completing observational drawings of plants, animals, and insects to pancake making, community building games, and securing plants for the Winter (pictured above with a wonderful group of helpful gardeners) we all had special experiences that we'll hold onto well past this prose day

❤️𐦂🧡𖨆💛𐀪💚𖠋💙𐦂💜

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We ended our week with discussions on our favorite comfort foods and made sketches of where our favorite foods could have come from 🤔💭💡

Whether from farm, garden, supermarket, restaurant, or other destination, gardeners shared in dialogues the foods that bring them joy before being supervised in pancake creation to end a sweet week right

( ˊᵕˋ )♡🥞♡( ˊᵕˋ )

By the end of the day we even got to transplant some of the cucumber sprouts we planted during our planting calendar lesson last week!

Here's to kindly nurturing plants and each other during the times we need it the most 💚

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Today the students learned the history of pancakes and syrup. ˚₊🥞•₊˚ They talked about their favorite food and how it makes them feel

☺️🧡

The students enjoyed talking with each other about different foods they eat at home and learned about the different places and ways our food can get to us 🚚💨

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We continued our discussions and lesson around the Bialowieza forest and the young gardeners had a great discussing nature

↟🌲˚☀️ᨒ↟🌲

They talked about the different parts of nature and their favorite places they've visited in nature 🏕️🌲

We heard some fascinating stories about the beautiful places the young gardeners visited. They had a lovely time taking turns listening to one another 👀˖⋆🌷͙⋆ ִֶ👀

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We welcomed the end of this week by reviewing and introducing ways that we can extend and change the norms of planting calendars

📄✍️🤔

We organized our classroom into an educational theatre, watching a video on ancient gardening techniques that has helped people through history extend planting seasons 🌱💧☀️🪴

We took notes and drew our favorite techniques from the first educational theatre 🧠🎥❤️

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Another day of gardeners embraced learning about planting calendars and how greenhouses, cold frames, and other indoor tools can help us nurture our plants during the cold months 🏡📚🍃

We took to the garden to harvest mammoth sunflower seeds before coming inside to seed a whole tray with those seeds and others to sustain and inspire us 🌟🌱💡

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This Wednesday the gardeners continued discussions around greenhouses. Our gardeners drew and designed their own greenhouses in their journals in explorative and creative ways 🌟🧠💭

We also had the opportunity to plant seeds for cucumbers and other flowering plants that we hope to continue growing within our classroom for the Winter season 🌱🙏🥒

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Continuing lessons on planting calendars and tools to help extend plant growing seasons, gardeners went on tours of our two vestibule greenhouses 🌱🏡🌱

We had opportunities to talk about what we saw in our greenhouses, from plants growing and being maintained during the Winter to harvested seeds drying for future planting! 🌾🪏🌾🪏🌾

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Gardeners were inspired to think about how we can keep growing plants as temperatures continue to drop around us in the Wintertime ꙳*̩̩͙🌨️•❅*̩̩͙❆˚🌨️*̩̩͙₊

Whether it be using outside tools like greenhouses and cold frames or indoor options like grow lights, seed tray heating pads, or even hydroponics, gardeners learned how to push the boundaries of our accepted planting calendar

❄️🌱☃️🌱❄️

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Gardeners took to the roof garden to explore this unique time in the season by engaging in hands-on activities like replanting flower bulbs for them to grow in Spring! 𖤣🍁𖥧𖡼𓋼🧄𖤣𖥧

We continued our hand turkey crafts with construction paper environments and our gardeners shared so many heartfelt insights into what they were grateful for in their projects 🙏✨💖✨🙏

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Our gardeners had conversations about gratitude leading up to our Thanksgiving break, sharing the people and aspects of their lives that they're glad they have

✩🧡𓏲⋆.🥧˚

We celebrated the changing of season by creating turkey hand crafts and scarecrow popsicle sticks together 🌬️🍂☃️

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A big thank-you to all our amazing young gardeners! Your hands got messy, your smiles got bright, and your plants grew strong. Every seed you planted helped make our garden a special place. Keep being curious, helpful and kind- just like real gardeners do”

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We continued our hand turkey creations with a new twist: writing the things we are grateful for to add on our creations!

We had conversations about how our identity and the things we do in our day to day can determine what we are grateful for 👪❤️

Gardeners made scarecrows and turkeys today to complete our wonderful Tuesday session before Thanksgiving! 🦃🧡

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Our Thursday gardeners spent their afternoons exploring hibernation. 😴 ❄️

Students created models of bulbs they planted this fall using magazine cutouts. Bulbs are planted in the Fall and are dormant or hibernate during the Winter before blooming in the Spring. 🌷🧄

Afterwards, everyone learned about different mammals that hibernate during the Winter by taking notes and sculpting mammals out of air dry clay. 🐰🐻🦇

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Our Friday gardeners spent their afternoons exploring hibernation. 😴 ❄️

Students created models of bulbs they planted this fall using magazine cutouts. Bulbs are planted in the Fall and are dormant or hibernate during the Winter before blooming in the Spring. 🌷🧄

Afterwards, everyone learned about different mammals that hibernate during the Winter by taking notes and sculpting mammals out of air dry clay. 🐰🐻🦇

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Our Wednesday gardeners spent their afternoons exploring hibernation. 😴 ❄️

Students created models of bulbs they planted this fall using magazine cutouts. Bulbs are planted in the Fall and are dormant or hibernate during the Winter before blooming in the Spring. 🌷🧄

Afterwards, everyone learned about different mammals that hibernate during the Winter by taking notes and sculpting mammals out of air dry clay. 🐰🐻🦇

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Our Tuesday gardeners spent their afternoons exploring hibernation. 😴 ❄️

Students created models of bulbs they planted this fall using magazine cutouts. Bulbs are planted in the Fall and are dormant or hibernate during the Winter before blooming in the Spring. 🌷🧄

Afterwards, everyone learned about different mammals that hibernate during the Winter by taking notes and sculpting mammals out of air dry clay. 🐰🐻🦇

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Our Monday gardeners spent their afternoons exploring hibernation. 😴 ❄️

Students created models of bulbs they planted this fall using magazine cutouts. Bulbs are planted in the Fall and are dormant or hibernate during the Winter before blooming in the Spring. 🌷🧄

Afterwards, everyone learned about different mammals that hibernate during the Winter by taking notes and sculpting mammals out of air dry clay. 🐰🐻🦇

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Our Friday gardeners spent their afternoon exploring community.

With the guidance of our garden educators students each contributed one leaf to a garland for the classroom. 🍁

Today students had the opportunity to first paint their leaves before adding them to the garland.

This garland represents unity and collective creation.

🍁🍀🍁🍀🍁🍀🍁🍀🍁🍀🍁🍀🍁🍀🍁🍀🍁🍀🍁🍀

Every time students return to the classroom they will see their garland and be reminded that they are a part of a community!

Afterwards, we went outside to collect different seeds from around the garden. And, we played a game that challenged everyones listening skills.

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Our Thursday gardeners spent their afternoon exploring community.

With the guidance of our garden educators students each contributed one leaf to a garland for the classroom. 🍁

This garland represents unity and collective creation.

🍁🍀🍁🍀🍁🍀🍁🍀🍁🍀🍁🍀🍁🍀🍁🍀🍁🍀🍁🍀

Every time students return to the classroom they will see their garland and be reminded that they are a part of a community!

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Our Wednesday gardeners spent their afternoon exploring community.

With the guidance of our garden educators students each contributed one leaf to a garland for the classroom. 🍁

This garland represents unity and collective creation.

🍁🍀🍁🍀🍁🍀🍁🍀🍁🍀🍁🍀🍁🍀🍁🍀🍁🍀🍁🍀

Every time students return to the classroom they will see their garland and be reminded that they are a part of a community!

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Our Monday gardeners spent their afternoon exploring community.

With the guidance of our garden educators students each contributed one leaf to a garland for the classroom. 🍁

This garland represents unity and collective creation.

🍁🍀🍁🍀🍁🍀🍁🍀🍁🍀🍁🍀🍁🍀🍁🍀🍁🍀🍁🍀

Every time students return to the classroom they will see their garland and be reminded that they are a part of a community!