Inch by Inch, Row by Row

On Friday, we went outside to explore our school garden and get it ready for fall planting! 

We met a few of our PTO Volunteers out in the garden to help do some fall planting. We planted daffodil bulbs that will grow into beautiful flowers in the spring!

We each put on a pair of gardening gloves and grabbed a shovel before planting our bulbs in the ground

One of our twins even got to plant a "twin" bulb!! 

Afterwards, we got to explore around in and around our garden, looking for plants and insects and sharing what we already know about gardens with our friends

We looked at many of the fallen leaves and acorns that were on the ground around the garden and we were able to determine that the leaves we found were from maple and oak trees, and we learned that maple leaves turn red because of all the sugar in their leaves! We love watching the leaves change color outside, and we can't wait to see our daffodils brighten up our garden in the spring. 

SMS Garden Build Day and Celebration

This week, the SMS Garden became a reality! After months and months of planning, research, and fundraising by our PTO and our Garden Reps, the blue prints were set and the building began 

Volunteers from Timberland came out on Thursday during their Earth Day to build our beds, shed, fence, picnic tables, and benches! They worked with our 5th graders to begin the Rock Garden and Thank You Garden. We caught a glimpse of the action after lunch and we couldn't believe how much had been built since the start of the school day!

On Saturday, everyone in the SMS community was invited to help with the rest of the building and planting as well as to celebrate the completion of the garden in the afternoon. Ms. Riley and many of the past and present giraffes were there to lend a helping hand! 

After revealing the garden name SMS Wolves' Green Growing Lab and enjoying some sweet treats, we got to plant the seedlings that sprouted from our Plant A Seed Day seedlings

 There is still plenty of room in our garden beds, so we will be planing the seeds we've been growing in class next week! 

THANK YOU to all of the people who dedicated their time, knowledge, and resources towards making this garden. We are so fortunate to live in a community that is so supportive of our school and our learning, and we are going to be enhancing our learning with this incredible resource for years to come! 

Earth Day 2016: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Restore, Replenish

This week was filled with all sorts of Earth Day festivities--from growing our seedlings and planting seeds for our school garden to exploring and capturing the great outdoors. 

Our seedlings on Monday

Over the last two weeks, we've been growing our seedlings. They've made lots of growth already!

Our seedlings on Friday!

We've been continuing to write poems in Writer's Workshop, so we took the iPads outside to take some pictures that will inspire some of our poems when we return from vacation

On Friday, we had parent volunteers from the PTO visit our classroom. They helped us pick and plant seeds that will go into our school garden and we also got the chance to vote on the name of our new garden!

We also got a little crafty by using recycled tissue paper to create heart-shaped planets to show our love for our world

Lastly, we made one more ode to Earth Day by taking a quick hike on the trails in Stratham Hill Park. We took the trails all the way back to the pond by the base of the kill, where we got to see some handiwork done by the park's resident beavers! 

Happy Earth Day!