Gardening Club

We had so much fun with Little Green Thumbs in our grade 4 classroom last year, that we have decided to take gardening school wide.  Next week we will be starting up a gardening club using the equipment from Little Green Thumbs.  The club will be available to students in grades 4 to 8 and we hope to meet two times per month during the lunch hour. 

We will be using activities from the Junior Master Gardener resource we purchased last year to teach students about all aspects of gardening.  The club will be starting up a school-wide vermi-composting  programme to reduce the amount of organic material being dumped in the garbage.  And, the club will take over care of our school-front flower garden which we hope to expand in the spring.

We’ll keep you posted as to our success with this club!

Janet Taylor

Well Little Green Thumbs, it is already that time of year when the birds start chirping outside our windows reminding us that spring is on its way! While we have been busy little bees and butterflies in our gardens all winter long, Mother Earth is getting ready to thaw and start gardens outdoors all over the province!

One of the best things about Little Green Thumbs Saskatchewan is that when spring time comes, it is time for us to CELEBRATE!!! Father Robinson School in Saskatoon has already hosted their Celebration Event at the school. I was so excited to be invited and share some of the goodies that they grew in their garden!

There were many people filling up the classroom on February 25th, 2009 with 24 students, 3 teachers, and between 23-30 parents and siblings! The guests were excited to see the garden (which is still producing green peppers and tomatoes!) and we all had a great time sharing a wonderful lunch of veggies, buns and fruit.

The highlight of the event for me was watching the video of the students taking turns performing the “Plant Parts Rap”! (You can find the lyrics to this rap at JMGkids Online.) I can definintely see some very talented Little Green Thumbs coming out of this school!!!

I asked the students what their favourite parts of Little Green Thumbs was this year and some of them said:

* I loved harvesting the vegetables!
* I enjoyed watching the plants grow!
* All of the kids liked having the sun bulb in their classroom!

I also asked some of the parents if they had noticed a change in their children since the garden has been in their classroom:

* The children seem more aware of where their food comes from.
* They were very excited about the worms and were even recommending them to their parents and other students for science experiments and projects.
* The celebration event “feels like Thanksgiving!”.

Although Father Robinson has celebrated their garden already, they aren’t finished! They are planning on growing some flowers for Mother’s Day!

(oops, I hope I didn’t ruin the surprise!)

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR HOSTING THIS WONDERFUL EVENT FATHER ROBINSON!

GOOD LUCK WITH THE REST OF YOUR GARDENING EXPERIENCE!

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