Summer Activity: How Do Your Garden Friends Grow?

A frequent family visitor to my garden on a summer morning.

A tiny garden, a whole farm--size doesn't matter. Creating a lovely habitat for garden critters (including yourself) is a dynamic way to love a summer.

Butterflies, bees, lizards. hummingbirds all become part of the family when you live part of your summer outside in a garden. Kids thrive just like the rollie pollies Pill Bug (Rollie Pollie) http://www.bugfacts.net/pill-bug.php#.U7MWF7GmV5M in a well mulched garden plot. Morning sunrise is a lovely time to see how the garden and its inhabitants are doing. Bird Song Hero http://biology.allaboutbirds.org/bird-song-hero/ Later, during a lunch picnic, your kids' butterfly family will flutter by. Butterflies and Moths of North America http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/

How to Create a Butterfly Garden in a Pot

http://www.hgtv.com/gardening/how-to-create-a-butterfly-garden-in-a-pot/index.html

Kids quickly learn most garden dwellers are not dangerous and are deserving of respect. Kids have a serious vested interest in the environment and can make positive contribution through loving your local bees. Help save our bee population with this easy DIY project!http://www.care2.com/greenliving/help-the-bees-with-this-diy-bee-water-garden.html

Extra credit! Helping bees and growing mint for Mom's summer tea.

A garden is an adventurous place, an eco-system alive and active. Kids know when to leave it alone and just observe. Anyone who eats black widow spiders is welcome in my garden, and these mojave

lizards really love it. They are characters that can win a staring contest. When claiming their territory, they do push ups. It is also good to know what else might be in your garden that's not so innocuous. Living With Wild Reptiles and Amphibians

http://www.californiaherps.com/info/livingwithherps.html 

A garden attracts an exciting variety of birds--your kid will be just as excited about the bird feeder as old great Aunt Maxine--and they will have a lot to talk about! Hummingbirds are curious, funny friends in the garden, finches keep a regular schedule of feeder visits, and around here we even get the occasional roadrunner (beep beep.) Ravens here are so regular in their habits, you can name them.

Backyard Bird Identifierhttp://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birding/backyard-bird-identifier/

 

The Unloved.

The Loved.

Kids love bugs. Digging around in the garden doing maintenance can transport a child into the marvelous world in the dirt, on the plants. The interrelated lives of garden insects. Good Garden Bugs, the Ten Most Wanted http://www.clean-organized-family-home.com/garden-bugs-good.html#sthash.DE8v0D2E.dpbs 

 

Loving those worms, lacewings, pillbugs, kids joining all the community of the garden.

This is my favorite post, probably because it reminds me of so many lovely visits to the garden. 

Keeping Butterflies, Bees and Hummingbirds Happy 

http://melanielinktaylor.mzteachuh.org/2014/05/summer-activity-keeping-butterflies.html?spref=bl

Trending Topics in Teaching

Online Teaching

Teach from Home is a Google-led initiative that gives you everything you need to get started. Free, secure tools are designed to enable collaborative teaching and learning - anywhere, at any time, on any device. So education can continue, no matter what.

Google Teach from Home  Giving teachers and families the tools and tips they need to help keep students learning.

https://teachfromhome.google/intl/ALL_in/

Arts Integration

Bringing the arts into core curricula raises student achievement and improves student engagement. Discover and share strategies for integrating the arts throughout core subject areas.

https://www.edutopia.org/topic/arts-integration

Project-Based Learning

Project Based Learning (PBL) is a teaching method in which students learn by actively engaging in real-world and personally meaningful projects.

What Is PBL?
https://www.pblworks.org/what-is-pbl

Learning Theory

Learning Theory describes how students absorb, process, and retain knowledge during learning. Cognitive, emotional, and environmental influences, as well as prior experience, all play a part in how understanding, or a world view, is acquired or changed and knowledge and skills retained.

What’s the ‘Sweet Spot’ of Difficulty For Learning?

https://schoolleadership20.com/profiles/blogs/what-s-the-sweet-spot-of-difficulty-for-learning-by-annie-murphy-

Garden-Based Learning

School and community gardens can be used for academic enrichment, where students can learn about nutrition, food security, and ecological sustainability.

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/garden-based-learning-kristin-stayer

Our STEM Garden: A Dream Come True

Our greenhouses at Granite Hills High School 2017-2018
--full of wonderful things.

We even had a Monarch visit us!

 A STEM garden has always been a treasured desire of mine. And I came out of teacher retirement last school year for an assignment for my favorite group of students (the Moderately/Severely Handicapped), at my favorite high school (Granite Hills High, Apple Valley, CAL. My daughter graduated there in '02), AND greenhouses to tend! Perfect!

Grow lights

The Three Sisters

We used the first semester to have Good Health Tuesdays, which involved class cooking and discussion of how to eat well. The second semester we brought in grow lights and started the plants for the greenhouses. I confess I brought some squash, bean, and corn plantlings home to my Teaching Garden. I'm growing 'The Three Sisters' --a Native American practice placing corn, beans, and squash together. The beans use the corn as a trellis.

'How Does Our Garden Grow?' Quite well!
We ran a few science projects with gardening, too.

Kale, the superfood.

Spinach.

Our greenhouses provide fresh onions, garlic, spinach, kale, tomatoes, squash, pumpkins, radishes, cantaloupe, watermelon, and carrots for the culinary class at our school. BTW, they cater town organizations, faculty meetings and offer weekly specials to the school. I especially like their crescent sandwiches. 
Our veggie goodies also fed the tortoise that lived in the next classroom. The radish was a favorite--she ate it like a corn on the cob!

Casey fulfilling watering tasks in the greenhouse

We all worked every day for the garden. The results were vegetables, of course, but also camaraderie.\Facebook

Twittergoogle_plusPinterestShare

Our STEM Garden: A Dream Come True

Our greenhouses at Granite Hills High School--full of wonderful things.

We even had a Monarch visit us!

 A STEM garden has always been a treasured desire of mine. And I came out of teacher retirement last school year for an assignment for my favorite group of students (the Moderately/Severely Handicapped), at my favorite high school (Granite Hills High, Apple Valley, CAL. My daughter graduated there in '02), AND greenhouses to tend! Perfect!

Grow lights

The Three Sisters

We used the first semester to have Good Health Tuesdays, which involved class cooking and discussion of how to eat well. The second semester we brought in grow lights and started the plants for the greenhouses. I confess I brought some squash, bean, and corn plantlings home to my Teaching Garden. I'm growing 'The Three Sisters' --a Native American practice placing corn, beans, and squash together. The beans use the corn as a trellis.

'How Does Our Garden Grow?' Quite well!
We ran a few science projects with gardening, too.

Kale, the superfood.

Spinach.

Our greenhouses provide fresh onions, garlic, spinach, kale, tomatoes, squash, pumpkins, radishes, cantaloupe, watermelon, and carrots for the culinary class at our school. BTW, they cater town organizations, faculty meetings and offer weekly specials to the school. I especially like their crescent sandwiches. 
Our veggie goodies also fed the tortoise that lived in the next classroom. The radish was a favorite--she ate it like a corn on the cob!

Casey fulfilling watering tasks in the greenhouse

We all worked every day for the garden. The results were vegetables, of course, but also camaraderie.

Summer Activity: How Do Your Garden Friends Grow?

A frequent family visitor to my garden on a summer morning.

A tiny garden, a whole farm--size doesn't matter. Creating a lovely habitat for garden critters (including yourself) is a dynamic way to love a summer.

Butterflies, bees, lizards. hummingbirds all become part of the family when you live part of your summer outside in a garden. Kids thrive just like the rollie pollies Pill Bug (Rollie Pollie) http://www.bugfacts.net/pill-bug.php#.U7MWF7GmV5M in a well mulched garden plot. Morning sunrise is a lovely time to see how the garden and its inhabitants are doing. Bird Song Hero http://biology.allaboutbirds.org/bird-song-hero/ Later, during a lunch picnic, your kids' butterfly family will flutter by. Butterflies and Moths of North America http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/

How to Create a Butterfly Garden in a Pot

http://www.hgtv.com/gardening/how-to-create-a-butterfly-garden-in-a-pot/index.html

Kids quickly learn most garden dwellers are not dangerous and are deserving of respect. Kids have a serious vested interest in the environment and can make positive contribution through loving your local bees. Help save our bee population with this easy DIY project!http://www.care2.com/greenliving/help-the-bees-with-this-diy-bee-water-garden.html

Extra credit! Helping bees and growing mint for Mom's summer tea.

A garden is an adventurous place, an eco-system alive and active. Kids know when to leave it alone and just observe. Anyone who eats black widow spiders is welcome in my garden, and these mojave

lizards really love it. They are characters that can win a staring contest. When claiming their territory, they do push ups. It is also good to know what else might be in your garden that's not so innocuous. Living With Wild Reptiles and Amphibians

http://www.californiaherps.com/info/livingwithherps.html 

A garden attracts an exciting variety of birds--your kid will be just as excited about the bird feeder as old great Aunt Maxine--and they will have a lot to talk about! Hummingbirds are curious, funny friends in the garden, finches keep a regular schedule of feeder visits, and around here we even get the occasional roadrunner (beep beep.) Ravens here are so regular in their habits, you can name them.

Backyard Bird Identifierhttp://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birding/backyard-bird-identifier/

 

The Unloved.

The Loved.

Kids love bugs. Digging around in the garden doing maintenance can transport a child into the marvelous world in the dirt, on the plants. The interrelated lives of garden insects. Good Garden Bugs, the Ten Most Wanted http://www.clean-organized-family-home.com/garden-bugs-good.html#sthash.DE8v0D2E.dpbs 

 

Loving those worms, lacewings, pillbugs, kids joining all the community of the garden.

This is my favorite post, probably because it reminds me of so many lovely visits to the garden. 

Keeping Butterflies, Bees and Hummingbirds Happy 

http://melanielinktaylor.mzteachuh.org/2014/05/summer-activity-keeping-butterflies.html?spref=bl

Educational Links 7/1/16

How to Do Adaptive Learning Right

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2016-06-30-how-to-do-adaptive-learning-right?utm_content=bufferba950&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer 

11 Ways to Teach Math with Google Drawings 

http://www.controlaltachieve.com/2016/06/math-google-drawings.html 

18 STEM Activity Ideas, Resources to Promote Summer Learning

http://www.educationworld.com/a_news/18-stem-activity-ideas-resources-promote-summer-learning-1537730637 

Self-Directed Learning

http://www.teachthought.com/category/learning/self-directed-learning/ 

5 ADHD Trouble Spots and How to Avoid Them 

https://www.understood.org/en/learning-attention-issues/child-learning-disabilities/add-adhd/avoiding-adhd-trouble-spots?view=slideview&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=understoodorg 

For when you take the students outside to your STEM garden:

Top Field Guide Apps

http://birdsandblooms.com/blog/top-field-guide-apps/?trkid=FBPAGE_BNB_20160630_Birding_BlogPost 

The best and worst education news in 2016 — so far

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/06/30/the-best-and-worst-education-news-in-2016-so-far/ 

The federal government is working with states to try to figure out how to implement The Every Student Succeeds Act.  It seems like it could be an improvement on No Child Left Behind, but it’s still too early to determine if this is going to be bad or good for teachers, students and their families. As they say, the devil is in the details.