2nd grade finding nature's beauty

The RPE second graders came out recently to help make some beautiful nature wreaths for the garden.  We brought lots and lots of gorgeous material, all supplied by Mother Nature.  Roses, succulents, grasses, nandina berries, eucalyptus, pittosporum, salvias, magnolia leaves, rosemary, and lots more.  The kids did a great job of finding contributions in their own gardens to add to their class wreath.

This is our second year  doing nature wreaths and every year we wonder if the wreaths might end up being just a big mess of leaves.  And every year, the students show us how it is done and, let me tell you, they could give Martha Stewart some competition. 

This year, we also designed some ribbons out of raffia and the teachers chose the ribbon to add. 

While classmates were taking their turn at wreath making, the rest of the class was making sure our veggie beds were getting lots of water. 

So you be the judge and take a look at the fabulous nature wreaths made by our second grade classes.

I know, fabulous, right?  I am amazed that even though they were all given mostly the same plant materials, each class designed such a unique wreath.  Great job 2nd graders! 

More garden poetry

Garden poetry from Ms. Dietzmann's class.  Enjoy...

They start as a seed

We know what they need.

Soil, water, air and sun, 

Planting seeds is lots of fun!

Plants like garden beds, soil and dirt, 

Don't step there or the plants will get hurt!

If you want to see a flower, 

There needs to be a rain shower.

In the fall some plants will go away, 

But, we'll see them again on a sunny, Spring day!

Poetry in the Garden

Here's a little poetry composed by Ms. Phillips 1st graders during garden class.   Enjoy....

Working in the Garden is so much fun!

We plant the plants and they grow in the sun.

The sun gives lots and lots of power, 

to the many, many flowers.

Look at all the creepy crawly ants, 

climbing on all the beautiful plants. 

We plant flowers from little seeds, 

but the flowers and seeds do not like weeds.

Plants need energy to become nice and green, 

remember to keep the garden clean. 

1st graders whip the vegetable garden into shape

On a very windy day in October, the 1st graders came out to the garden ready to set to work on planting our vegetable garden.  

Each class planted seeds in a section of the T-shaped beds and then made sure the seeds were watered in well.  Crops include broccoli, kale, carrots, lettuce, spinach and chard. 

                          

                                              

After planting the seeds and making sure they were watered, the 1st graders learned about mapping in the garden by making their own maps of different areas. 

Annual Titan Wildflower Stomp

Could this be a picture of a stampede to a candy sale, a toy clearance, a cartoon marathon?  

Nope, it's just the River Place Titans enjoying  their annual Wildflower Stomp on October 24th.We are loving all of this rain, not only because it helps relieve the severe drought we are in but because we have some lovely little seeds that have just been waiting for rain. The Titans enjoyed their annual Wildflower Stomp on October 24th.  Fall is the perfect time to get those wildflower seeds in the ground so they begin germinating and be ready to bloom in the spring.  

 Thanks to a generous grant from the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, we received a grant to help pay for our seeds.  We picked a mix this year that has lots of variety with perennials (multiple year bloomers) and annuals (one year bloomer).  The mix includes:  Indian Blanket
Greenthread
Plains Coreopsis
Clasping Coneflower
Golden-Wave
Purple Coneflower
Scarlet Sage
Lemon Mint
Purple Prairie Clover
Cutleaf Daisy
Huisache Daisy
Drummond Phlox
Black-Eyed Susan
Texas Yellow Star
Lanceleaf Coreopsis
Pink Evening Primrose
Mexican Hat
Bush Sunflower
Prairie Coneflower
Winecup

Students from Kinder through 5th came out and stomped, twisted and jumped to help those seeds in the ground.  Now we will let nature take her course and get the seeds started and hopefully see some beautiful colors come next spring.