Lucy

Nature's Wedding
When cold air
and warm air kiss,
It makes a BOOM called Thunder.

Eventually they had a wedding
where they hired a well know band called Rain.

So whenever Thunder sounds
Be bold and stand your ground
For it's only Nature's Wedding.

Lucy - HWES fifth grade

Nature Inspires

Below is a poem written by our very own fifth grade student, Lucy.


Nature's Wedding

When cold air
and warm air kiss,
It makes a BOOM called Thunder.

Eventually they had a wedding
where they hired a well know band called Rain.

So whenever Thunder sounds
Be bold and stand your ground
For it's only Nature's Wedding.

Lucy (fifth grader)
Health, Wellness and Environmental Studies Magnet School

Goodbye Old Man Winter !

We are so ready to say "goodbye" to Winter. I believe there is some jealousy among the plants in our garden. Our Veggie Garden houses the raised beds where the students have planted radish, onion, lettuce, potatoes, carrots, zinnia and herbs. Our greenhouse is in the back of the garden with lots and lots of new sprouts getting ready for our plant sale at the end of April. I really think I heard the raised bed plants wishing they were in the greenhouse this week with 40 degrees of temperatures and I think I heard the greenhouse plants giggling and bragging about their warm and toasty home ! We are hopeful that every plant will be much happier by the weekend !

Spring Break for students but not for the greenhouse and gardens.

As of today, we are officially on Spring Break.  Luckily, I live 7 minutes from the school and no out of town plans so I can keep the watering going in the greenhouse and raised beds.  I will feel the hurt of loosing 600 helpers at any given moment that I have at my disposal !  The kids planted potatoes and wrapped up planting some more starter plants in the greenhouse .
We also set our plant sale date for April 29th and 30th.  This will be our 2nd annual school plant sale.  We also have two other events where we will load up our plants.  We are invited to our community's Health Fair that is sponsored by one of our local hospitals.  We will set up a booth of our plants and the students will also do cooking demonstrations for the crowd.  The event is held in our town's university's indoor stadium and attracts thousands of  visitors.  We will also participate in our community's Earth Day celebration. Again, we will set up a plant sale booth and our students will display projects from our recycle art fair.  BUSY TIME OF THE YEAR !

Seeds are little pieces of magic

Seed Tape and a grasshopper

We took our first stab at using seed tape !  Our 2nd graders planted two 4 x 8 raised beds with the theme of Salad Garden using seed tape of onion, carrots, lettuce and radish.  The seed tape we used was "store bought".  Planting small seeds with a large group of children was so much more manageable and time affective!  Seed tape in the long run will be too expensive for us to purchase every year but I found a great site that gives instructions on how we can make our own.  It is a great rainy day activity and can be used to hone measuring skills. 
http://centralfloridagreenguide.com/2008/02/28/sfg-series-making-seed-tape/

We were blessed with sunshine Friday and were able to get strawberries, zinnias, our salad beds and sunflower seeds in the ground !  The sweetest comment came from one of our 2nd grade girls:  " I sure wish I was a grasshopper that lived out here".  It is a treat to get hear the kids' conversations with each other when they are working in the garden !