The Garden In Full Bloom

This past week the children at Verner 

searched for ladybugs for a citizen 

science project and while no ladybugs 

were found there were many other 

bugs that will soon find a home in the 

bug hotel that is going to be installed 

this week. The children also helped 

begin weeding an area where there 

will hopefully be a teepee filled with 

mosses and other plants that will be 

fun to walk on and explore.

Some children became very interested 

in making flower bouquets for their 

classroom and families so we ventured 

out into the field beside the garden to 

find Queen Anne’s Lace, lots of clover, 

and some other wild flowers that I am 

not familiar with. The results were 

beautiful and I hope some of the 

bouquets made it up to the classroom.  

A lot of the flowers ended up in the our hair!

The garden is full of color and looking 

great! The tomatoes are bringing in 

different shades of yellow and orange, 

the peppers are an intense purple and 

they are ripe and ready to eat. The 

flower beds are looking extra colorful 

with different shades of red, pink, 

purple, and orange. While it is hot, 

this sure is a beautiful time to be 

spending days out in the garden.

New Projects and Exploring our Senses

The Garden is looking really wonderful; 

flowers are blooming, mulch and compost 

have been spread and the weeds have 

been “tamed”. We received a new picnic 

table this week and it has been set up to 

help create an outdoor classroom area in 

the garden and soon there will be a chalk 

board for teachers and children to write 

and draw on! 

This week the children explored items in 

the garden using observation mirrors and 

magnifying boxes. These tools helped the 

children understand the importance of 

looking and observing with our eyes. 

Some of the children were given a challenge 

to match a leaf with a distinct smell to the 

plant it came from. They looked for basil, 

licorice mint, and bee balm; some were 

harder to find than others, but with the help 

from their peers all of the children were 

able to find their plants.  

There has also been some progress on 

the creation of the “Bug Hotel” I found an 

old shelving system in my families barn, 

we knocked out the back board to make 

it accessible from both sides, put a 

protective glaze on it and next week we 

will begin the installation process. Here 

is a before picture, next week I will share 

what the final outcome is.

Hopefully the rising kindergarteners will 

be able to study the insects that we have 

in the garden to determine what we should 

put in our bug hotel to accommodate the 

bugs we want to live in it. Then we will get 

to work filling it will bamboo, wood, straw, 

leaves, and whatever else the children 

come up with.

Earth Loom

The Earth Loom is up!
One classroom has worked
with the loom using tall grasses
cut down by the weed eater to
begin the process of creating a
beautiful natural banner.
The children also had lots of
fun digging through our compost
delivered by Warren Wilson College
this past week. We found some items
that you wouldn't normally find in
compost, but that is what makes it
so special. We were able to talk
where the compost came from
and why there were forks and
spoons mixed in it.

Hopefully the new compost will
help our plants grow and the
classes will be able to take some
tomatoes and peppers up to the
kitchen soon!
Verner is closed next week and
hopefully the groundhog doesn't eat
all of the plants while we are gone!

This past week the children focused
on using their senses in the garden;
exploring different textures, smells,
colors, and so much more!

We have gained some new residence
in the garden; four groundhogs and
some bunnies. We are trying to co-exist
as well as possible, but it can get a little
frustrating at times. Hopefully they won't
eat all of our veggies!

The earth loom is scheduled to be finished
tomorrow so the rising kindergarten class
can being weaving items from the garden
into it.

The garden also had two volunteer work days
this week and a lot of progress has been made,
especially with keeping the weeds at bay.

The summer camp for rising 

kindergarteners started this 

week and they had lots of fun 

using materials from the garden 

as paint brushes to make a class 

banner and their own personal 

paintings. They used different

kinds of grasses, sticks, leaves, 

rocks, and so much more. It was 

great to see their creative minds 

at work, finding items that I 

wouldn’t even think of to use as 

a paintbrush.

Progress has been made on the 

earth loom, thanks to a volunteer, 
Audra Holden who has helped out 
with other local school earth looms. 
Hopefully by the end of next week it 
will be ready for the children to weave 
materials from the garden into! I am 
excited for all of the projects that we 

have planned for the garden this 

summer and I am happy that one 

is near completion!

Our next project will most likely be 

a shade structure to provide a safe 

space for the babies and a space for 

the older children to cool off and 

escape from the hot summer sun. 

I am also trying to build an outdoor 

learning space with picnic tables, 

chalk boards, and books related to 

the garden.

 

Week Two

I have been writing lots of lesson plans this week for Verner and their summer camp that is starting this Monday! The month of June has a theme around art so there will be lots of art crafts going on in the garden, including painting with plants, making plant crowns, and finishing the earth loom!

In the garden the mint patch is turning into a jungle so we decided to pick some to dry in the garden shed. Soon the children will take it up to their classrooms to make some delicious mint tea to go along with their lunch.

The rain has taken its toll on the garden these past few weeks and everything is growing like crazy! There are two chive plants exploding with beautiful purple flowers, the lambs ear is 1.5 feet tall and the tomatoes need staking!

The herb spiral that you can see in the picture to the right is on its way to completion, all we have to do now is move the herbs.

I spent this Friday, June 1, weeding out the horse nettle that is creeping its way into the garden, digging up a  cover crop to make room for more plants, picking strawberries with classroom 2, and staking the tomatoes. I have spent this week writing a few lesson plans for the garden that will
hopefully pan out soon!