Teach Dirty

Not too long ago, I was browsing a favorite local bookseller and came upon a fabulous find: HOW TO BE AN EXPLORER OF THE WORLD BY KERI SMITH (I’m not yelling at you; The whole book is in caps.) Within it are 59 “Explorations” to undertake indoors and out. From simple endeavors, like documenting lettering you find out in the world, to more involved projects, like creating clay reliefs and interviewing others, this book will keep any school-age child’s curiosity and senses satisfied.

While collecting inspiration for my students’ homework, I came across Exploration #4: DAILY WALK- COLLECT OBJECTS ONLY ON YOUR WAY TO WORK OR SCHOOL EVERY DAY. (TRY TO COLLECT THIRTY.) I don’t think my friend Amanda has read this book, but on our recent expedition in Nova Scotia, she completed this exploration.  She collected things she found in nature over the course of two weeks and extended the exploration by weaving them together to create a wall hanging as a gift for the Scientists we worked with. It was awesome to see, and I don’t think she’ll mind me posting a photo of her and it together.

Not all of the ideas in this book are new, but my brain is not as good a storage unit as it once was. This book is a fine resource for any teacher or parent of grade schoolers and the design is fun, with “handwritten” font, photos and quotes throughout. 

When I first began my venture of edible gardening with a classroom full of kindergartners, I knew it was going to be a challenge to accommodate all of them with two 6’ x 3’ raised beds.  There was the added issue to consider of asking five year olds to respectfully share space as well. Square foot gardening seemed to be the best way to address these concerns.  Thus far, I am pleased to report that it has worked out quite well. 

Being an inexperienced gardener myself, I was jumping into this blindly but filled with hope. Staples and twine were used to cordon each bed off into square foot “plots”.  Each child adopted one full plot at the bed’s edge and one half of a middle plot to grow carrots, snap peas, and either lettuce or spinach (the one vegetable they were able to choose). The vegetables were determined based on seed donations from a local non-profit that specializes in urban gardening with children. This book and Google helped me determine how many of each vegetable could be planted into one square foot of space to allow for optimal space between roots and above ground growth.  After 3 weeks, our peas have begun to sprout, which tells me it is time to install trellises to support the vines.

To build the trellises, bamboo stalks will be tied together to create a 6’ square frame and twine will be tied between the top and bottom stalk to create vertical supports for the vines. Once these are complete, I will post photos. 

We currently visit our plots three days per week to water them. To allow all students to participate in this activity and to ensure the watering is gentle and won’t disturb the seeds and growing plants, I’ve made watering cans from old bleach wipe containers.  After thoroughly cleaning out the containers to keep our gardens chemical-free, I poked holes in a grid pattern across the bottom of each container, using a thumb tack/push pin.  Every other day, I fill a bucket with water and each group of children along one side of a bed shares the job of holding the containers, dipping them in the bucket of water to fill them before holding them over their plots and allowing the water to “rain” out of the containers and soak their plots.  It’s effective and our watering tools follow our motto of “reduce, reuse, recycle”.

Stay tuned for garden updates!