The fascinating world of the Orca K-8 school garden!

We recently received 260 coho salmon eggs from the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery. John Muir Elementray was gracious enough to let us borrow their salmon tank and supplies. Students here are super excited about this opportunity to raise salmon eggs until they can be released locally into Lake Washington. Watch them grow from eggs to alevin right now! They are still hatching, so check them out and you may see one pop out of it’s egg.

In the hope of getting students excited about this coming spring, we had them draw what their own amazing garden would look like. This also helped us generate ideas for what the students would like to see in the Orca garden also.

In early preparation for the springtime, Pre-K had a chance to visit the sunny and warm greenhouse to plant seeds. They planted beets and swiss chard. we talked about how much seeds love soil, water, and sunshine. They were all extremely careful and thoughtful with the seeds. Nurturing future gardeners!

We got excited and planted some cold hearty chard, kale, and collards starts that we began growing in the greenhouse in September. It was so sunny and warm today, that we thought we would take a chance and get some of these guys in the ground. Another frosty stretch of weather coming? Who knows? But we thought it was best to take advantage of this rare sunny day here in Seattle.

<a They wrote a blog post about our community giving project we will be doing this spring. We will be growing thousands of organic vegetable starter plants to donate to food banks, schools, and community gardens. Read the article on Urban Farm Hub's incredible website…

http://www.urbanfarmhub.org/2010/01/orca-k-8-embarks-on-huge-community-plant-giving-project/

Do you know alll the ingredients in a bag of hot cheetos? How about half? This question was posed to the 6th grade Math/Science classes as the beginning of our unit on food. They were asked to highlight or circle the ingredients they did know, coming up with a mathematical percentage. This lesson was insightful and exciting because it really helps students learn to inform themselves about what they eat. Although almost everybody eats things that they know are not good for them, it is important to develop the ability to read food labels so they can make educated decisions for themselves. This 7 unit lesson on food will explore the ins and outs of where our food comes from and what is in it!

Some surprises: MSG- check. Tons of sodium- check. 9 servings in a bag?!? Unbelievable.

There is a great Native American folktale that tells the story of mice escaping a forest fire and hiding in a Douglas Fir pinecone. You can still see their feet and tail sticking out!! We talked with K-3 classes about the power of oral stories and how they are passed down from generation to generation. We updated the storytelling process by letting them make their own comic book strip detailing the story. They were encouraged to tell the story in their own way, with all their own embellishments and creativity.

There are a lot of approaches to garden education during the winter season. During this time, we are not able to experience the garden in a super hands-on way. But this does allow us to experience the world of sustainability, Native American culture, and food! So, though the garden may be gray now, we are shining some light on the natural world in the classroom.