The Discovery Garden Goes High Tech

This fall with the help ouf our technology specialist Mr. Murphy, we have added QR codes to the Discovery Garden. Now parents and other community members can scan the codes that link to videos about what is growing in the garden!

5th Grade Meso America Sweet Potato Harvest

   5th graders harvested a whopper of a sweet potato crop this fall.It was the first time Terra Centre has grown sweet potatoes. The earliest cultivation records of the sweet potato date to 750 BC in Peru, although  evidence shows cultivation of the sweet potato might have begun around 2500-1850 BC.  By the time Christopher Columbus arrived in the ‘New World’ in the late 15^th century, sweet potatoes were well established as food plants in South and Central America. Our sweet potato crop was used to make pies. The 5th graders, along with the help of Miss Tammy in our cafeteria, made pies and donated them to families in need this  Thanksgiving.                                   

Kindergarten Pansy Garden

Our kindergarten classes planted pansies this fall in an AB pattern. Pansies are not only beautiful plants that will grow over the winter months, they are also edible.
In the spring students will be harvesting the pansies and coating them in sugar to enjoy as part of our spring salad harvest.

October and November:  Our Bountiful Fall Harvest


2nd graders use marigolds from the garden to dye placemats

 Native Dyes with 2nd grade

  This fall the Discovery Garden was filled to the brim with cotton, sweet potatoes, and native dye plants. Our 2nd graders learned about Native Americans in October. As part of their unit of study students learned about the ways Native Americans added color to their wardrobes and to their homes.
 Ms. Nevin's class gathered acorns from around the school and then soaked them in a large pot. Acorns contain a substance called tannin. The tannin is released from the acorns when they are soaked in water. The tannin was used to dye clothing as well as leather products.
    Many Native Americans ate acorns as well as used them for dyes. They preferred bitter acorns to sweet ones because they stored better.  Also, charred acorns were used for a drink similar to coffee.
 2nd grade also used crushed black walnuts to dye cloth, just as the Native Americans did so long ago.
   Other dye colors used included madder, blackberry leaves, eucalyptus, and marigolds. Mrs. Leigh Muto lent her time in order for the 2nd grade classes to dye hand sewn placemats to a local Women's Shelter.


4th Grade Colonial Day 

        4th grade students grew and harvested cotton this fall. The first English settlers in America found little or no cotton among the natives. But they soon began to import the fiber from the West Indies, whence came also the plant itself into the congenial soil and climate of the Southern colonies.
      During the colonial period, however, cotton never became the leading crop. Cotton could be grown profitably only where there was an abundant supply of exceedingly cheap labor, and labor in America,  was never and could never be as cheap as in India.
    Colonists first began to weave cotton in the early 1600s. Our 4th grade students learned how to card the cotton grown in the Discovery Garden. They created drop spindles and used them to make yarn. Mrs. Muto took some of the cotton home and used her loom to spin it into the yarn you see above.

1st Grade Peanut Harvest

Yum! 1st graders found a pleasant surprise when they dug up their peanut plants this fall. The 1st graders harvested the peanuts then let them dry for about 3 weeks. After the peanuts dried they used them to make peanut soup in class. The soup recipe was from a cookbook written by George Washinton Carver. Students also used a recipe from Carver to make peanut soap!
   Peanut plants have a long history. Remains of peanut hulls  7,600 years old are were discovered in Peru.

December/January: Waiting Out the Long Winter

As winter descends, we bid farewell to the 2010 Discovery Garden.  Most of our raised beds now lay fallow until Spring 2011, with the notable exception of the winter wheat crop that 4th graders planted in November.  Wheat has been a staple crop of many societies as far back as Ancient Egypt, where it was grown along the banks of the Nile River.  Our seeds germinated quickly after planting, and their bright green shoots quickly grew to a height of nearly four inches before the garden soil froze in early December.  These shoots now lay dormant until the spring thaw, when they will awaken, rapidly grow taller, and add shockingly vibrant green color to the early spring garden.  By June, they will lose their green color and morph into the "amber waves of grain" for which our "America, the Beautiful" is so famous.  Students will harvest and dry the wheat stalks, and then thresh and winnow the wheat from the chaff. 

"Who Will Help Me Bake the Bread?" asked the Little Red Hen.  This summer, Mrs. Occhuizzo took our 2010 Discovery Garden dried winter wheat kernels to the mill and had them ground into whole wheat flour.  In December and January, Kindergarten used the flour to bake fresh whole wheat bread!  Unlike in the tale of the Little Red Hen, the work of planting, growing, harvesting, threshing, milling, and baking our bread was a cooperative effort.  And of course, so was the process of eating it! YUM.

Sunflower Seed Bird Feeders for Terra Centre's Winter Birds 

To continue the cycle of life in the garden through the cold winter months, Mrs. Occhuizzo also worked with Kindergarten in December to make birdfeeders for the many winter birds that call the Discovery Garden their snowy, winter home.  Students used the dried seeds from our Mammoth Sunflowers that loomed over our summer garden in August.  We are happy to report that the Terra Centre cardinals, chickadees, and robin populations are quite well fed and very happy with their young Kindergarten friends!

Native American Miniature Popcorn--POP!  They planted it.  They grew it. They harvested it. They popped it!  2nd grade enjoyed popping the multi-colored kernels from our miniature Native American Popcorn this winter, which 4th grade harvested this fall in support of their studies on Native American cultures and Virginia History.  Students rubbed the dried ears together to remove the hardened kernels, and watched them pop in a real-life popcorn maker!  It was intersting for many of the students to see that this well-known, tasty treat can be made without a paper bag and a microwave! Who knew?

Virginia History Colonial Fair:  In December, 4th grade participated in the second annual Terra Centre Colonial Fair as part of their social studies unit on Virginia History.  For a 2nd year, Leigh Muto, a Terra Centre parent and active Discovery Gardener, attended the fair armed with her spinning wheel. She demonstrated to the students how to spin natural fibers (like the Monticello cotton we grow in the Discovery Garden) into cloth.  Students also performed the Virginia Reel for parents.

Natural Dyes from Marigolds:  Mrs. Occhuizzo also taught 4th graders how to dye natural cloth using the dried marigold flowers from the summer Discovery Garden.  These marigolds were grown from seed last February as part of the 6th grade gardening elective.  Students then transplanted the seedlings in a perimeter around each of the raised beds in May, where they stood as sentries all summer long to ward off invasive insects, which are detered by the scent of the marigolds--organic pest control! They were then picked and dried to be used in coloring cotton fabric, in the same manner used by the early settlers of Virginia. 

The International Journey North Tulip Project--When will spring arrive at Terra Centre?

1st grade's Journey North tulip bulbs are safely tucked under the frozen ground, and we are anxiously awaiting their emergence as a tool for measuring the arrival of spring.  Did you know that a tulip bulb must be exposed to at least two months of cold temperatures in order to emerge and bloom?  This is why some Journey North tulip gardens in Florida did not report emergence or bloom dates at all last year.  Once the winter snow melts, our 1st grade environmental scientists will need to keep a watchful eye on their tulip garden. When will spring arrive in Burke, VA?  Each 1st grader made a prediction of exactly what day they think their tulips will emerge.  We'll see if anyone guesses the correct date!  Check out the the interactive online Journey North map pattern to discovery patterns for the arrival of spring across North America: http://www.learner.org/jnorth/maps/tulips_spring2011.html.

November: Tucking in Discovery Garden for Winter

During the month of November, students, teachers, and parent volunteers were busy readying the Discovery Garden for its long winter's slumber.  As we pulled the final spent tomato plants from the raised beds, Junior Girl Scout Troop 173 volunteered their time and muscle to weather-treat the seven wooden raised bed frames and turn fresh new compost into our soil.  We are very thankful for their help.  Their efforts this fall have made the beds ready for planting again as soon as the ground thaws in March, and will ensure rich planting soil in the Discovery Garden next spring.



The International Journey North Tulip Project

For the third year in a row, our 1st graders are participating in the International Journey North Tulip Project.  Terra Centre 1st graders work with other schools across the Northern Hemisphere on a cooperative science experiment to track the emergence, growth, and bloom of the Red Emperor Tulip plant.  Journey North tulip bulbs are planted according to a specific scientific protocol in the fall at each of the participating schools.  Local emergence and bloom dates are recorded online as the seasons change from winter to spring in different regions of the Hemisphere.  These bright red tulips are early bloomers and are used as scientific tools for students to measure the arrival of spring in their hometown.  Emergence dates are plotted on an online map of North America, and students learn that spring arrives in different places at different times!  Our Terra Centre 1st graders have each made predictions for when "spring" will arrive in Burke.  We will see if any lucky student(s) picked the correct date of emergence for our Terra Centre Journey North tulips! 

Our careful observations about tulip emergence and bloom dates are also used by scientists to help track climate change patterns over time in the Northern Hemisphere.  How do differences in temperature, sunlight, geographic location, percipitation, and weather influence plant growth?  Will Spring 2011 arrive in Burke earlier or later than it did last year?

You can check out the Journey North Tulip map at:  http://www.learner.org/jnorth/maps/tulips_spring2011.html. 

Pansy Pattern Gardening
In November, our kindergarten classes worked cooperatively to design and plant their very own Pansy Pattern Garden.  Classes voted and chose an A-B-B-A math pattern of yellow and blue pansies.  They then divided the oval garden space into four separate areas (one per class), and each child had the experience of planting two pansies as part of the overall pattern.  The cold-tolerant pansies will survive the winter and continue to add beauty to the Discovery Garden throughout most of the spring.  Last year's Pansy Pattern Garden survived being buried under two feet of snow!

Earthworms Make America Great!
Every year, 1st graders at Terra Centre have the opportunity to study worms.  In November 2011, Mrs. Brinley's K-1 multi-age class took their learning to a new level by performing the off-beat musical, "Earthworms Make America Great".  Students sang 10 original songs about earthworms, including the blues-inspired "All My Worms Is Gone", the anatomically-oriented "Five Hearts", and the hoe down ditty, "My Compost Pile is Mighty High". The class also made Dirt Shirts for their costumes using soil from the Discovery Garden to naturally dye the shirts brown.

October: A Bountiful Harvest

Harvest Time!  As squirrels and critters are busy this October making preparations for their long winter, so to have our Terra Centre Tigers been busy harvesting their warm weather crops from last June and building food stores for winter.  This year's fall bounty includes heirloom tomatoes, bell peppers, green beans, miniature Indian popcorn, goose neck gourds, sugar baby pumpkins, mammoth sunflower heads, Virginia peanuts, basil, parsley, sage, oregano, mint, thyme, rosemary, and chives. 

Produce Donated to Food for Others. Much of our fall bounty has been consumed in the classrooms (Mrs. Beil's Green Tomato Cake was a hit for a 2nd year in a row!), but we are happy to report that Terra Centre families have made two trips already this year to Food for Others--a local food  bank that distributes our extra produce to needy families throughout our community (http://foodforothers.org/).

Peanut Harvest Fun! Also in October, our 1st graders, the K-1 class, and 4th graders had the opportunity to harvest Virginia peanuts.  Few garden experiences are more satisfying than tugging on a big, leafy green peanut plant to reveal a cluster of hidden peanuts pegged below the soil line.  Fourth graders coupled this experience with a lesson on the Origins of the Peanut and a trip to see peanut plants at Green Spring Gardens.  They can now readily identify peanut pegs and are familiar with the plants history, including its origins in Brazil or Peru (~3,500 years ago), its migration to Europe, Africa, and Asia with the Spanish explorers, and finaly its arrival in Virginia with the African slave trade. Later this year, 1st graders will draw connections between their experience harvesting peanut plants and George Washington Carver, the famous American scientist, botanist, educator, and inventor who is credited with developing 105 food recipes involving peanuts, as well as 100 useful products made from peanuts for the home and the farm.  Carver recognized the value of the peanut as a cash crop and recommended that it be planted as a rotational crop in the Southeast cotton-growing areas where the boll weevil insect was devastating regional agriculture.

El Jardin de Descubrimento.  After serving Discovery Garden salsa to her classes in honor of Spanish Heritage Month (thank you, 2nd grade chefs!), Senora Plante took her Spanish classes to the great outdoors.  Students spent time up in the Discovery Garden developing their vegetative Spanish vocabulary (pumpkin, tomato, flower, etc.) and singing fun garden songs. Senora Plante also recorded videos of her classes enjoying a hunt through the garden for her favorite and ever-blue classroom buddy, "Papa Pitufo" (a.k.a., Papa Smurf).

Corn Harvest  Did you know that corn and its many chemical derivatives are present in one form or another in most of the foods we consume?  Sodas, processed food additives and preservatives, most meats and dairy (feed lot cows, chickens, and pigs all eat...corn!).  Maize, or corn as we know it today, would not exist if it weren't for the people of central Mexico who cultivated and developed it nearly 7,000 years ago from a wild grass called teosinte. From this region, the crop migrated south to Peru and north to the Eastern Woodland Native American tribes of North America.  When Columbus and other European settlers landed in the New World, corn was a major component of the Native American diet. These explorers brought their new corn discovery back to Europe.  Did you know that corn is a human invention, a plant that does not exist naturally in the wild? It can only survive if planted and protected by humans. This month, our 4th graders helped harvest our Native American miniature popcorn crop, which our 2nd graders will "pop" later this year when they study Native American cultures.

The Discovery Garden Farmstand!  Those of you who attended Back to School night in mid-September may have noticed our new Discovery Garden Farmstand in the front hall of the school.  Mrs. Occhuizzo not only spent her summer dreaming up creative garden learning opportunities and recipes for our kids, but also constructing an entire Farmstand for them. Thank you Mrs. Occhuizzo!  Not only do the Terra Centre students, teachers, and parents love this wonderful addition to the main hallway, but the resident crickets in the building also love it! They can be heard chirping merrily from their cozy new perches in the decorative corn stalks.

September: Touring the Discovery Garden

As the equinox approaches and the first signs of red, yellow, and orange "autumn fires" begin to light up the tree tops in Northern Virginia, Terra Centre teachers have been busy taking their students on tours of the September Discovery Garden to see what changes have taken place in our crops since last June.

Butterflies!
Our two butterfly bushes have doubled in size and are laden with purple nectar-producing flowers. Along with the perennial flowers in the butterfly garden, these plants are the home to a plethora of butterfly species this year.  We have adopted quite a population–or maybe they’ve adopted us!–including the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail that can be seen feasting on butterfly bush flowers in the top picture and the common buckeye that is sucking down sedum in the lower picture.

How many species can you identify?

Marigolds –An Organic Method of Pest Control
The giant marigolds in the first few beds were started from seed by last year’s 6th graders as part of their gardening elective. (These students have moved onto Robinson, but a piece of them remains here in the TC Discovery Garden!) Many invasive insects do not like the smell of marigolds, so ringing your garden in these beautiful flowers creates a natural barrier to harmful insects, eliminating the need for chemical pesticides.

Perennial Asparagus – An Example of Seasonal Changes The asparagus that we usually envision from the grocery store actually represent the stalks of the plant that emerge from the ground in April. Over the course of the growing season, these stalks open to create fern-like bushy fronds. Students can sketch the bushy, tall asparagus plant as it looks right now and re-visit the plant in April to see how different the new stalks appear in early spring.

Red Peppers Are Really Mature Green Peppers
We have a few California green bell peppers growing in the garden bed closest to the butterfly garden. Watch these peppers develop into red bell peppers over the next few weeks.

Did you know that a red pepper is just a green pepper that has been left on the vine longer?

Red peppers are sweeter than green peppers because they’ve had a longer period on the plant for their natural sugars to develop!

   

Fresh Virginia Peanuts Lurking Below the Soil!

Our peanut plants are showing some yellowing in their leaves, which is a sign that harvest time is near.  Peanuts grow under the soil, and are connected to the main plant by pegs. 1st graders will harvest the plants, and set them to dry while they learn about George Washington Carver, the inventor of peanut butter! 1st and 4th graders will learn how peanuts became an important Virginia cash crop in the early 1900s when the boll weevil devastated the South's cotton crops.  George Washington Carver promoted the introduction of alternate crops, such as peanuts and sweet potatoes, to improve quality of life for southern farmers.

Corn Experiments!
We performed an interesting experiment this year with our miniature Indian popcorn crop. Students planted one bed of corn seeds in monoculture ("Iowa-style"), flanked by two beds full of corn grown in mounds alongside beans and squash according to the traditional Native American methods (the Three Sisters). The theory behind the Three Sisters is that these plants thrive due to symbiotic relationships--that is, 1) the corn stalk provides a pole on which the beans can grow, 2) the beans fix nitrogen into the soil, improving its fertility for the other two plants, and 3) the squash has big leaves that shade the roots of all three plants. Which method do you think performed the best? Students will harvest the ears of corn in the coming weeks, and the hardened colorful kernels will be saved for popping during the 2nd grade unit on Native Americans later this year.

Powdery Mildew Returns!

Many students may remember watching Mrs. Arseneau spray milk on the powdery mildew infected pumpkin plants last fall as they listened to Miss Nevin read "The Fungus That Ate My School" in the outdoor classroom. Apparently, milk raises the pH of the plant to a level where the acid-loving fungus can no longer exist. Organic chemistry in the garden! Unfortunately, our great garden nemesis is back again this fall after having lain dormant in the soil for the past year. Kindergarten is busily harvesting our green pumpkins to use in their Pumpkin Lifecycle lessons, while Mrs. Koch is eyeing our gooseneck gourds, which we will dry out for use as maracas in music class.

Monticello Cotton

Our cotton crop is much smaller this year, but starting to show signs of setting bolls.  These bolls have seeds inside, which produce moist fibers that grow and expand under the hot sun.  As they develop, they will eventually push forth from the browning, ripening boll, exposing a fluff of cotton that looks like cotton candy.  Traditionally, this rough cotton is ginned to remove seeds, and then spun into cloth.

This year, we planted Monticello Cotton in honor of one of our most famous Virginians, Mr. Thomas Jefferson, who planted cotton mainly for home manufacture rather than as a cash crop due to the shorter growing season in Virginia compared to the Deep South.

Our cotton will be ready for harvest around the time of the 4th grade Colonial Fair in mid to late November. Students will get to see the open bolls, as well as a real spinning wheel demonstation!

The Many Colors of Heirloom Tomatoes
Our bountiful tomato plants are laden with a rainbow of fruit. We planted three different heirloom varieties last spring, which are producing three different colors of tomatoes this fall –Purple Cherokee (purple), Brandywine (large & pinkish), and Rutgeerts (smaller & red-orange). Of course, there are also many green tomatoes. 2nd grade partnered with Seniora Plante this month to make Discovery Garden Salsa with our first haul of ripened tomatoes and herbs. Students ate the salsa during their Spanish classes in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15th).

Sunflowers Bow Their Heavy Heads to Fall
The Mammoth Sunflowers are beginning to wane.  Their heads are full of seeds and will dry out in the garden over the coming month. The seeds will be used to make suet for the Terra Centre winter bird population, and possibly maybe some yummy human snacks as well.

Back to School and the 2010-11 Discovery Garden

Welcome back to another exciting year in the Terra Centre Discovery Garden.

With the help of a wonderful army of volunteers led by Karen Savell and Lauren Lentz, the Discovery Garden survived and thrived through the brutal heat of Summer 2010. We extend a warm thank you to all the Terra Centre parents that participated in watering and weeding this summer: Mimi Wormser, Jenn Glahn, Theresa Allen, Karen Savell, Debbie Davis, Jennifer Underwood, Christine Eads, Francesca Fitzgerald, Sherrie Walther, Daria Akers, and Laura Lewis.  The Discovery Garden could not have survived without your much appreciated help!

Below is a list of the many exciting Discovery Garden enrichment programs that we have planned for the 2010-11 school year. We look forward to another year growing with our Terra Centre Tigers in the garden.

Fall 2010

• Planting spring "TC" crocus bulbs on the hill above the garden
• Insects: The predator/prey relationship of the tomato horn worm and the predatory wasp
• Native American miniature popcorn harvest and popping
• Scarecrow construction
• Discovery Garden Salsa in honor of Spanish Heritage Month (September 15th)
• Green Tomato Cake -yummm!
• "The Fungus That Ate My School" & a study of the powdery mildew fungus affecting our pumpkins
• Virginia History--the Origin of the Peanut lessons
• George Washington Carver peanut lessons and harvest
• Gooseneck gourd maracas for music class
• Virginia History--cash crops & planting winter wheat
• Native American myths & storytelling in the outdoor classroom
• The Journey North Tulip Project on seasonality and global warming (http://www.journeynorth.com/)
• Pine cone birdfeeders with homemade sunflower suet
• The Pumpkin Lifecycle
• The Pansy Pattern Garden
• Virginia History --Monticello Cotton
• 4th Grade Colonial Fair
• Food for Others service project donations
• Garden observational journaling
• Composting & fall garden clean-up

Spring 2011

• Spring schoolwide "Salad Bowl Planting Day"
• Potato planting
• Thematic gardens (Early American/Jeffersonian, Three Sisters, Ancient Cultures, Medicinal Herbs, Cash Crops, Butterfly Garden)
• Journey North Tulip Project --emergence and bloom
• Donation of tulip bouquets to Healtherwood elderly housing
• Earth Day spring clean-up & mulching
• Spring Salad Bowl Harvest Day
• Food For Others service project donations
• The Great Potato Harvest
• Summer crop planting
• End of year clean-up/composting