Glenavy School Room 2 Garden Blog

Glenavy School has been learning about gardening. First we learned about the story of a seed and how a potato grows. Everybody planted some potatoes and within a week or two they were already sprouting.

 On our second week, we did garden maintenance and weeded before planting carrots and kale. We learned about germination. Germination is when a seed starts growing its roots and its shoots.

 

On our third week together, we read the fairy tale Jack and the Bean Stalk. Then, every student planted a bean in a jar. Each student has a hypothesis about how tall their bean will grow and how long it takes to germinate.  Each bean was planted in wet tissue inside a glass jar and placed in a sunny spot. It took 2 weeks for the beans to sprout. Some of them are rotting and some of them have grown to the top of the jar. 

 

On the fourth week, we learned about which parts of the plant we eat. Depending on the vegetable, we eat roots, leaves, flowers, tubers, and stalks.  We made a collage with photos of different vegetables for each part of the plant that we eat.

On the fifth week, we did a bug hunt and searched for biodiversity in the garden. Overall, we had a lot of fun gardening with Sophia and we hope she can come back soon. We learned about growing vegetables, went on a bug hunt, and had fun too! Thanks Miss B and Room 2!

Oamaru North School garden club

Oamaru North pupils have been really enjoying hte Kids Growing programme. They are expecting a new school to be built very soon, so we have planted in small concrete tubs and boy have this grown!!

Omelette making and enjoying the garden greens

Omelettes on crackers!

Blamy winter gardening

At Waitaki Valley School we got the garlic planted after the shortest day, We often call it Late Harvest Garlic, so it will be ready in time for the students to harvest it when they return from their summer holidays.

We saved the best and biggest cloves from the garlic they grew here last year. Katie sure in impressed with the big seed garlic.

Maheno School's Garden is booming into spring!

Nearly every week, going to school garden clubs is the highlight. The kids have so much energy, enthusiasm and passion to grow their gardens, it is positively contagious! If you ever think you need a pick-me-up to brighten your week, I would definitely recommend volunteering at your local school garden.

Maheno School has been working to develop and grow their garden area over the past year, and they are already seeing great results! Thanks to a volunteer dad, we have this awesome new tool shed and propagation area for growing our seedlings! "We just chucked everything out of the shed, reorganised everything, cleared the bench to make rooms for seedlings, hosed out the tool shed, and swept," said Organisation Team Leader Gemma. Seedlings planted include trays of pumpkins, broccoli, snow peas, tomatoes, and spuds.

Planting Team: Gemma, James & Hunter

Maheno School received a grant from the North Otago Tree Planting Association to start their fruit orchard, so students have planted a variety of trees including 5 feijoas, apples, and peaches. To help the trees grow, "we added compost and leaves as mulch," said Planting Team Leader Case. Here is a Lil Digger moving compost to the trees:

Here is a photo of the Maheno Garden Club

And our awesome parent helper Nikki with her daughter:

And here is the Supersonic Planting Team... it takes team work to make the dream work!

We are currently looking for volunteers who can help us water the garden over the summer months, so if you live near Maheno School and can help, please get in touch with the school principal Ryan Fraser.

The Life Cycle

In the Kids growing programme students have been learning about the plant life cycle. Tracing the growth of a seed on cards, students have been able to map out and some groups even acted out the cycle.

Preparing for Spring

Many of the School Gardens are preparing for spring, weeding and clearing the beds for the big plant out. Every 2nd year the supplier of Mitre 10 give generously to our North Otago Schools and kindys.

Papakio School have put in new raised garden beds.Topped up with soil and compost awaiting a spring planting.

Duntroon School's room 4 have been blogging about their compost making and their worm farm. It has sparked the attention of a North Island school principal who is keen to find out their recipe for success.

 Fenwick School one rainy day opted to learn the compost song on the ukulele.

Oamaru North School has enjoyed learning about bees and has planted bee food in their school garden.

Matariki Celebrations in North Otago School Garden Clubs

Matariki was celebrated accross the Norht Otago School Garen Clubs this year in the form of Star shaped scones with herbs from each school garden.

One Maori Legend was shared amoung the classess and some did a theatrical re-enactment of it.

"Matariki literally means the ‘eyes of god’ (mata ariki) or ‘little eyes’ (mata riki). Some say that when Ranginui, the sky father, and Papatūānuku, the earth mother were separated by their offspring, the god of the winds, Tāwhirimātea, became angry, tearing out his eyes and hurling them into the heavens."

Here Waitaki Valley School pick the herbs fresh from theor school garden for the Matariki scones. Tarragon, sage chocolate peppermint, lemon balm and marigold flower petals

Meg from Duntroon School is a keen garden club participant.  Here she shows off her thumb that is  rather green! Their class got busy potting up Kowhai seeds from DOC packs to help the Duntroon wetlands and to beautify their homes and school.

Waitaki Valley School fresh herb pickings.  Sage and tarragon

Students got to help read out the recipe and give the dough a mix. Some students were keen to try some lemon balm in their scones.

Baked with lots of butter, giving them a delicious smell and a good crispy crunch!

Bella and Lulu thought yumbo!! and Bella picked a bunch of herbs for her mum from the school garden

Papakio School made a great batch too,

Fenwick School have a great selection of flowers and herbs to add to their Matariki scones.
Nasturtium and even Nettle.

So great to get using the school kitchens.  Fenwick Schools is well resourced!

And the delicious taste test!

Happy Maori New Year everyone!

Bug hunt

Pembroke School Got BUG HUTING recently

Some good examples were found!!

We excavated the compost pile to find the creepy crawlies inside.  There were so many Slaters, some snails big and small and some lovely black beetles, a few grubs and some centipedes.

The compost was decomposing well

Among the hunt for bugs a delicios strawberry was found by Selici