Students in the Discovery Program, Hayesville Elementary after school program, have been learning about seeds and will be designing a Sensory Garden. There are two 4-H volunteers visiting the group once a month to teach the students about gardening. Each volunteer is also an Extension Master Gardener in Clay County.
The first lesson was about propagation. The students were given various items to watch them sprout. (avocado, carrot, celery, pineapple, mint)
The next time the Master Gardener volunteers visited the classroom, the students learned about the water cycle by creating their own terrariums.
The group met a few days before the first day of Spring so they could plan their garden. Wooden blocks and graph paper were provided so the student's design for the raised bed garden would be to scale. Each student will draw a design to help in the garden planning.
On the same day, each student was given a 6 cell container to plant seeds for the raised beds. Once the sown seeds are big enough they will be transplanted.
The first day of April brought the first layer of the raised beds. The students used a LOT of math to determine the layout of the raised bed. Besides measuring, they were able to use the diagonal of the square to make sure the sides were parallel and the angles were 90 degrees.
The children enjoyed completing the raised beds. Each raised bed had 4 children working as a team to lay the second layer of block, hammer rebar to hold the blocks, and then empty bags of soil.
The next step is to put in the plants and seeds. Hopefully we will do that soon, as long as the weather holds out. However, planning around the weather is something to learn when having a garden. The plants are in!!
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