A Monarch Butterfly Chrysalis!

I was out in our school garden this afternoon and what should I find? A monarch butterfly chrysalis! For the past three years I have been trying to get our milkweed to grow strong and for monarch butterflies to find it.  This year they finally did!

I can't wait to see if it hatches in 10 - 14 days. I have been reading online how only about 10% of the caterpillars go on to become butterflies...there are a host of predators out there!  On Monday, if the chrysalis is still there, I will bring it inside to hatch and then release it back into our garden.

Monarchs in our Garden!

I went outside to water the school garden today and what should I see? Almost a dozen monarch caterpillars eating milkweed leaves!  They are big and look awesome!  I also saw a Monarch butterfly flitting about the plants.  Maybe she was looking for a place to lay some eggs!

Our Gorgeous Garden!

As summer kicks into gear, our garden is starting to show it's beauty!  They kids have done such a good job growing plants, watering, weeding and caring for the garden that it's not a surprise it looks so amazing!

The red basil was started in our wall farm in the
cafeteria. 

Lots of tomatoes!

Cantaloup and watermelon!

First strawberries!

Lettuce originally grown in the wall farm in
the cafeteria!

Tomatoes starting to grow!

A ladybug eating aphids!

A beautiful Question Mark butterfly.

A monarch visiting our milkweed!

A monarch egg!

A very small monarch caterpillar eating our milkweed!

 I can't wait to see how the garden looks in September!  Have a great summer!

Our Garden is Awakening!

First grade had their last gardening class this week.  While we were outside, we noticed that some of our plants are starting to grow!

Daffodil leaves.

Tulip leaves.

Our chive is looking great already!

A butterfly bush!

Purple Aster just starting to push up through the ground.

These daffodils have buds!

I am so excited to see how our garden does this season!

Gardening with First Graders!

First graders started gardening class in December.  That might sound like a crazy idea, especially when the temperatures are hovering around freezing and the garden looks like this:

But 1st grade has actually been very busy exploring soil...

We found rocks, twigs, leaves and grass.

We found lots of roots.

We even found a strange critter!

The soil from our garden looks very healthy!

 and observing red wigglers from our classroom wormery.

Red wigglers are smaller than earthworms and live in compost.

When they get scared, the squiggle around like crazy!

We even found some baby worms!

After looking at our garden soil and the composting worms, we dissected a lima bean seed.

The lima beans were soaked in water to soften
the seed coat and make it easier to get off.

Trying to get the seed coat off the seed. We
discovered the seed coat protects the seed
just like our coats protect us!

 There is food in every seed which allows it to
grow in the soil before reaching the surface and
the sunshine.

Look!  You can see the root is already starting to grow out of the seed!

The root growing from the seed.

You can see the little leaves.

The seed coat and the food for the seed.

I found the root and the leaf!

 Next we will plant mystery seeds and see what grows!

Gardening with Kindergarteners!

It has been a wonderful three months gardening with the kindergarteners!  We started our curriculum when it was warm and the plants were still growing and producing vegetables.  Now we have had our last class and the garden has been put to bed!

With the garden in this resting state, our last two classes were spent looking at and drawing a special spot in the garden that reminds us of fall and....

One small flower still growing!

This raised bed looks like fall...there are no plants.

The leaves in the garden are fall.

 

No plants here!  Just fall leaves.

 ...looking at what is in the soil in our raised beds! It is important for our plants to have good soil so it can grow!

We found little rocks.

There are leaves and pieces of wood in the dirt.

Rubbing the soil on our paper.

We found a burrowing spider!

Is that a worm?

Roots!