I did el jaguar for my spanish presentaition.

Making Chicken T-Shirts

We are close to the end of our year, and I felt like we needed to acknowledge the work third graders did with the first chickens on the microfarm. I thought it would be fun to make a t-shirt to commemorate this moment at FSH. I asked children to submit drawings and some children volunteered to make t-shirt designs. I found a printer, a young woman,  Julia Policastro. She is a student at Tyler Art School. She came to my house and I showed her the students' designs.  Julia took the drawings, made a sample t-shirt on her computer, and then made a silk screen of the final design. Julia came to our school on Wednesday with all the materials. It was a hot morning, but we managed to be very productive! We helped Julia by holding the screen and preparing each shirt. The shirts came out great! It was a fun project and now we will all remember our role in FSH's microfarm.  I hope you enjoy the t-shirts! 

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All of the beautiful designs made by children.

La Presentación de Alejo de los penguinos

State Float Parade

Andrew and his float - Arizona.

May 24, 2011 proved to be a day to remember! When the floats began to arrive, everyone milled around, "ooing and aahing" at the floats. We could see what third graders learned and the creative ways they turned their wagons or other movable devices into floats. The morning was filled with singing, people peering at floats, and huge smiles on the faces of third graders. The audience's curiosity was piqued when they saw the floats paraded around the gym. Once people were able to get up close to the floats, the room was buzzing with questions and answers, and many complements. So many people were impressed by students' creativity and knowledge of their state. I was also impressed! I know how hard third graders worked to do research and get the travel brochures just right. Together we produced an exciting, informative, and creative parade. I am so proud of all of my third grade students!

Cole and his float - Texas.

John and his float - Nevada.

Devin and his float - California.

Armina and her float - Alaska.

Chloe and her float - New Mexico.

Zeineb and her float - Tennessee.

Henry and his float - North Carolina.

Mekkhi and his float - Florida.

Lara and her float - New York.

Genesis and her float - Hawaii.

Autumn and her float - Maryland.

The gym filling up with participants

Photos after the parade.

One more loop with our floats.

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Thank you parents for a delicious BBQ picnic!

Well done third graders!

Our trip to Maysie's Farm Conservation Center

It was a cool and overcast May morning when we arrived at Maysie's Farm Conservation Center. Sam Cantrell, the owner of Maysie's, and his dogs kindly greeted us. Sam shared his vision and philosophy for his farm. It can be summed up into this simple idea, "Organic farmers work to grow healthy soil." Healthy soil has millions of microrganisms that do the work to grow healthy vegetable plants, and these plants provides us with food that is nutritious. Our good health and energy is based on the availability of this kind of nutritious food.

You could say that Sam is passionate about eating real, wholesome food, and understanding the cost of the farming by other means. His farm is organic and sustainable, meaning that the farm produces enough revenue to keep it going. There are several solar panels on the farm that are tied into the electrical grid. The solar panels provide the farm with electricity and income that has already paid back a third of the cost of the solar panels.

 The first step of the growing cycle that we partook in was to learn how to amend the soil. We took turns mixing the soil with compost and leaves. Then we wanted to make sure that the soil had plenty of air - not too dense. We pushed the soil through a grate to remove and sticks, rocks, and to break up any large chunk of soil.

Mixing in compost.

Transferring the soil to the screens to sort through it for sticks and rocks.

Using a screen to make the soil just the right size, and stick and rock free.

We put our amended soil into seed containers and planted several varieties of lettuce. When this lettuce is ready to be harvested, it will be sold to the members of the Maysie's CSA, Kimberton Whole Foods, the Montgomery School, or Conestoga High School.

Carefully we planted one seed per container and then covered it an eighth of an inch deep. 

Then we snapped our fingers and viola, it was a pretend four weeks later. We carried several flats of lettuce seedlings from the greenhouse and brought them to a prepared bed. These small lettuce plants were four weeks old and ready to be planted in the prepared beds. Sam taught us how to handle the fragile plants and how to securely plant them. 

Watering our transplants.

For the final stage of farming, we snapped out fingers again, and a second pretend four weeks passed. We walked to a larger building called the Hoop House, a large greenhouse that is used to grow vegetables during the colder months. It is missing the cover as it blew off a few weeks ago. We were also able to harvest carrots, turnips, and scallions. 

Washing our produce before Sam made it into a salad for us.

The last part of the day was spent eating our lunch at picnic tables in a lovely setting under a tree beside a small field. Sam made us a delicious salad from the vegetables we just washed and harvested. It was a very special salad. Some of the children found a soccer ball and played a game in the field. Some of us tried using a very basic compost portapotty. Many children told me that this was the best field trip ever. I think I agree!