With our farm systems off to a great start, we’re able to begin our focus on plants in our DGS community! 💚
Middle school students began by looking up at the trees on our property to take note of all the English ivy vigorously growing up into the canopy. This sparked a lively and impromptu discussion of invasive plants - a concept we will explore more deeply as they continue their “adopt-a-tree” project. Each student will “adopt” one or more trees on our DGS property and not only learn about that tree through direct experience and study, but will free their tree from its ivy pest through their own actions. We kicked it off by honing observational skills and decision-making by learning how to use a tree identification key. ID using a key is like solving a puzzle and we’ve definitely got some puzzle-solvers in this group. Everyone jumped right in and several species were identified correctly on first attempt! We will be focusing on this project for several weeks and it dovetails beautifully with the awesome multidisciplinary tree project that Ed introduced this week. 🌳
Lower El and Upper El continued exploring Aquaponics and taking water chemistry measurements. Lower El prepared the hydroponic beds for the seedlings that are almost ready to transplant, and UE mixed soil for propagation by cuttings. Lower El will begin their plant study focus exploring local plants on the Greenway next week and Upper El will propagate!
Last, but never least, Kindergarteners came up with their own motions to a fun little song about the six basic parts of a flowering plant. Can you name them? Here’s a link if you wanna join the fun: https://youtu.be/ogW8Z7lZLNw
We all spent a little time fish-gazing, as our catfish are actively feeding now and it’s mesmerizing to watch them come to the surface. We should begin detecting some nitrates just in time to feed our greens.
