Fall 2017 Projects.
Harvesting, preserving, and cooking sweet potatoes.
In mid-September Mr. Wamsley's 3rd graders used garden forks, shovels, and their bare hands to dig up a 30' row of sweet potatoes that had been growing all summer. The children weighed the harvest and found they had harvested 110 pounds of potatoes. Because of unpredictable weather, the potatoes were harvested before the leaves had turned brown, so most of them were a slender fingerling size.
A community volunteer took the potatoes home and cured them so they would be sweeter and could be stored for months without refrigeration. The curing process involved spreading the potatoes on racks inside a shower stall and keeping the potatoes at 85 degrees for three weeks.
After the potatoes were cured, the whole third grade made sweet potato pies and ate them. The remaining potatoes were later cut into bite-sized pieces, roasted in the school cafeteria, and offered during lunch time in a school-wide taste test.
Goldilocks and the Three Soils.
Using the story of Goldilocks, a local Master Gardener Extension Volunteer taught first and third grade classes visiting the garden about the three basic soil textures: clay, sand, and loam. Just like the beds in the Goldilocks story were too hard, too soft, and just right, soils can be too hard (clay), too soft (sand), and just right (loam) for vegetable plants to grow. The speaker handed out open containers of each soil type so children could feel the different textures and see the color differences.
As a follow up activity to learning about loamy soil, all of the first graders were turned loose to rip up the dead tomato and bean vines left from the summer harvest and to add them to the garden's compost pile. The children loved yanking and shredding the dead plants, although some of the vines were too tough or too thick to tear up by hand.
Also as a follow up, third graders who had learned about the importance of cover crops in protecting loamy soil sprinkled crimson clover seed across a vacant bed to protect the soil over the winter. Clover seed was also sprinkled in the open areas around the bean plants growing on a trellis. Sowing clover seed not only keeps soil from blowing away in the wind, since clover is a legume it adds the plant nutrient nitrogen to the soil.
Peanut harvesting.
The third week in September, third graders took a field trip down the road to Hopewell's Community Garden to study peanut plants and see them harvested. Because it was not yet time for peanut harvesting, peanut plants had peanuts in all stages of development--including blooms. Children used math to count the number of peanuts in all stages of development on each plant. They also learned that peanuts are not true nuts but legumes like beans, and they observed the nitrogen-filled nodules on the roots that makes peanuts (and all legumes) good cover crops.
Comparing bean varieties.
Children planted pole beans and bush beans to compare which type of bean plant produced the most bean pods.
Planting onions.
First grade students used yardsticks to help them plant red and Texas Gold onion sets (baby onions) four inches apart. Not only did the activity teach the usefulness of a yardstick, the children had lots of practice adding by 4's. Unfortunately, January's weather in the teens killed all the onion plants. Replacement onion sets were ordered for planting in February, even though they would not mature until summer.
Harvesting, preserving, and cooking sweet potatoes.
In mid-September Mr. Wamsley's 3rd graders used garden forks, shovels, and their bare hands to dig up a 30' row of sweet potatoes that had been growing all summer. The children weighed the harvest and found they had harvested 110 pounds of potatoes. Because of unpredictable weather, the potatoes were harvested before the leaves had turned brown, so most of them were a slender fingerling size.
A community volunteer took the potatoes home and cured them so they would be sweeter and could be stored for months without refrigeration. The curing process involved spreading the potatoes on racks inside a shower stall and keeping the potatoes at 85 degrees for three weeks.
After the potatoes were cured, the whole third grade made sweet potato pies and ate them. The remaining potatoes were later cut into bite-sized pieces, roasted in the school cafeteria, and offered during lunch time in a school-wide taste test.
Goldilocks and the Three Soils.
Using the story of Goldilocks, a local Master Gardener Extension Volunteer taught first and third grade classes visiting the garden about the three basic soil textures: clay, sand, and loam. Just like the beds in the Goldilocks story were too hard, too soft, and just right, soils can be too hard (clay), too soft (sand), and just right (loam) for vegetable plants to grow. The speaker handed out open containers of each soil type so children could feel the different textures and see the color differences.
As a follow up activity to learning about loamy soil, all of the first graders were turned loose to rip up the dead tomato and bean vines left from the summer harvest and to add them to the garden's compost pile. The children loved yanking and shredding the dead plants, although some of the vines were too tough or too thick to tear up by hand.
Also as a follow up, third graders who had learned about the importance of cover crops in protecting loamy soil sprinkled crimson clover seed across a vacant bed to protect the soil over the winter. Clover seed was also sprinkled in the open areas around the bean plants growing on a trellis. Sowing clover seed not only keeps soil from blowing away in the wind, since clover is a legume it adds the plant nutrient nitrogen to the soil.
Peanut harvesting.
The third week in September, third graders took a field trip down the road to Hopewell's Community Garden to study peanut plants and see them harvested. Because it was not yet time for peanut harvesting, peanut plants had peanuts in all stages of development--including blooms. Children used math to count the number of peanuts in all stages of development on each plant. They also learned that peanuts are not true nuts but legumes like beans, and they observed the nitrogen-filled nodules on the roots that makes peanuts (and all legumes) good cover crops.
Comparing bean varieties.
Children planted pole beans and bush beans to compare which type of bean plant produced the most bean pods.
Planting onions.
First grade students used yardsticks to help them plant red and Texas Gold onion sets (baby onions) four inches apart. Not only did the activity teach the usefulness of a yardstick, the children had lots of practice adding by 4's. Unfortunately, January's weather in the teens killed all the onion plants. Replacement onion sets were ordered for planting in February, even though they would not mature until summer.