April 26

Garden Project: Step 3-Research

Okay.  We’ve decided to plant pumpkins.  We’ve followed some simple steps to get started.  Now it’s time to decide which type of pumpkins to plant.  Remember a few simple things…

  1. We want to plant something that is relatively small (5-10 pounds).  A vine will only be able to support so much fruit.  If we choose a larger variety, it may not produce as many pumpkins.  This doesn’t quite fit our goal.  We want to have enough pumpkins to harvest so that our primary classrooms can each have at least 1 to enjoy with their students.
  2. We want to try and select a plant that generates a high yield.  The yield refers to the number of pumpkins we can produce.
  3. We have a limited amount of growing space for pumpkins.  We need to consider the room each plant will require to get the optimum number of pumpkins in the space we are given.  So, the smaller the plant, the more plants we can grow.  This can be hard to picture.  You want to look for plants that can be planted at least 3-4 per hill.

Use the territorial seeds website to help you to decide which type of pumpkins we should plant.  Also, use the form your teacher provides to help guide your research.

 

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April 19

Garden Project: Step 1-Where does food come from?

If I ask where food comes from, they will probably say, “The grocery store.”  Sure, we often go to the grocery store to buy food that we later prepare and eat.  In fact, there are lots of stores we can go to buy food.  A few students will even say, “McDonalds!” or a restaurant.  But I wonder if any students will really ponder where it came from before finding its place on a store shelf, or a restaurant kitchen.  Recently, we’ve been learning more about nutrition, but not as much about our food resources.  Where do they come from? Here’s a link to a quick game you can play to begin to think about how complicated it can be.  Click on the Elementary Farm-to-Table Challenge.  Here’s another video link to help you actually see the Farm-to-Table Journey.  Click on the virtual field trip.

 

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