Monthly Archives: May 2015

Soil

Last year was the first year that I helped 3rd grade at Linville-Edom Elementary review their unit on soil for their SOL test.  Needless to say the test scores showed that the kids were paying attention!  This year I headed down to Linville Edom once again to teach students about soil, layers, types of soil, etc.  We had a blast…literally!  During our soil shake experiment we forgot to loosen the lid so the air pressure could escape so we had a soil milkshake all over the desk.  I’m sure the kids will never forget!  We also examined rocks, sand, silt, and clay soils with an experiment to see which soil had the quickest water runoff.  A highlight of the lesson was going outside school grounds to collect several soil samples to look at.  Lastly, we finished the unit off with reviewing decomposers, producers, and consumers by bringing in the worm bin!

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Farm to School Days

April and May are busy days for myself but I enjoy them more than any other month because I get to be outside!  Another reason I love spring so much is all the Farm to School Days I get to attend.  Several schools in Rockingham County host a Farm to School Day for students to learn more about where their food comes from and general agriculture.  Keister Elementary, Stone Spring Elementary, Lacey Spring Elementary, and Plains Elementary School are just a few to name.

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4-H Butterfly Club-Landscape Design

IMG_0066This week we learned about landscape design during our 4-H Butterfly Club meeting at Mountain View Elementary.  Jason from the Rockingham Extension Co-Op came in to talk with members about spacing, color variation, and planting a butterfly garden.  We all went outside to take a look at the space we have to work with then went back inside to start designing!  More pictures to come later once the project is finished!

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School Gardening

I am sure glad the warm weather is back!  One reason-we can finally get back into our school gardens to plant.  I’m always amazed at how much the kids enjoy digging in the soil, picking weeds, and harvesting their crops.  Even on hot days they dig right in!  This month we have been working to prepare the garden beds and planting flowers, squash, beans, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, peppers, and pumpkins.  I can’t wait to bite into a juicy strawberry!

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