Teeny Tiny Garden

Pre-Schoolers were given pansies to plant in their garden this fall.  One section of their garden is devoted to artificial flowers so the pre-schoolers can pretend to plant flowers each day!  The pansies offer them the opportunity to observe real flowers growing.

 Alphabet Garden

Kindergarteners also planted pansies after the garden work day to add color to their garden for the winter.  The living things science kit allowed the kindergarteners the opportunity to study plants and animals in and around the garden.  The children created terraria showing the variety of habitats in this section of the schoolyard.  They created a pine needle terrarium consisting of plants, soil, and pine needles found under the pine tree; a garden terrium complete with monkey grass, a pansy, and a decorative shell; a rocky terrarium from a rocky area where no plants were growing and plenty of rocks could be found; and a grassy terrarium with soil, grass and other plants that were found growing in a sunny spot.  The children then added insects from each area to complete the terraria.  They found crickets, a grasshopper, worms, snails, and ladybugs.

 Weather Station and Iris Garden

First graders have been using the outdoor classroom this spring to measure precipitation (rain and some snow), measure the wind using the flags. We've been using the thermometer to measure the temperature each day. We've been using our homemade rain gauges near the beautiful irises planted by Iris City Gardens. We've been using the benches to look at the clouds and identify cumulus, cirrus, and stratus clouds. All first graders have had chances to read on the benches, too. We always enjoy the gardens more during sunny warm weather.

Butterfly Garden

Second graders spent six weeks learning about butterflies in their science kit.  They were able to watch the caterpillar form a cocoon and turn into a beautiful butterfly.  The butterflies were released in the butterfly garden.

 Herb Garden

Preparations are being made to plant herbs in the spring.  The apple trees that were planted last spring produced apples this fall.  Yum! 

 Native Tennessee Garden

A couple of surprises were in store for the children in this garden.  Last spring during a 1st grade celebration the children enjoyed eating watermelons and spit the seeds on the ground around the pavilion and in the garden.  Watermelon plants grew during the summer and surprised everyone with about eight big juicy watermelons!  Beautiful large sunflowers also surprised us from seeds which fell from the bird feeder.