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Tuesday, December 20, 2011

OSPI STEM LIGHTHOUSE SCHOOL!!!!!!

Just a quick shout out to OSPI for their awesome support of all that we are doing to bring STEM curriculum and learning opportunities to our community here at Stewart.

$20,000 dollars will go a long way for our school. Can't wait to see how our school will be able to put it to use!

THE STEWART COMMUNITY GARDEN THANKS YOU!!!!!!

Monday, December 19, 2011

We'll be off for a while...

We will be taking a break from the community garden for Christmas. We will have one week of first semester left when we get back from break. January term will follow for 3 weeks (of no gardening) and then second semester will begin with a new cast of gardeners. We will do our best to keep you posted on any news.

From all of us here at the SCG, have a happy holiday.

PS a garden plot makes a great Christmas gift!

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Cold Day But Hard Working

Weed with the hula hoe
dalante

Pick up piles of debris between garden beds take to  compost
robert

get leaves for compost
kameron

pick up plant material from compost pile and put in bins
russell

litter pick up
tiffany and amaya

homework
javier, andrew, jeremiah, tiffanee, sara








       Andrew and Javier Picking up trash
This Is Andrew & Javier Picking Up Litter

This Is a Sign That Was Made During
 Januray MiniTerm 2011

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

A Days: What the Garden Means to Me

Brittany
I love the garden.
The Garden means a lot to me because it shows where food comes from and I know it is fresh

Frank L.
I like it in gardening, doing jobs to pass the time, helping, supporting the S.C.G

Jaeden R.
I like to do construction work like cutting wood and collecting worms.

Spencer S.
SCG is fun and it is cool that we are helping so many people

Hererra
SCG means fun, good outdoor activity, dirty, good for the community, giving, good group work, food!

Michael T
I think this class is fun and cool. This is my third favorite class.

Cody P.
SCG means being able to get outside and enjoy fresh air, rather than be stuck in a classroom. Also working in the garden allows me to contribute to something more meaningful

Mateo R
I love this class. My favorite part of this class is when it is sunny and we go out and dig weeds out and fix beds up.

Anonymous
SCG is the best elective class ever. Even though I'm new to the work, Garden Class has made me think of making a garden in my backyard, though it would mean cutting down my pear tree (which is sick anyway). I want my very own garden to work on. Thanks SCG and MR. Iverson

Anonymous
SCG to me it means SUPER COOL GARDEN. It is like this becuase gardening is super cool.

Mackenna P
I like to help out the community as much as I can.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Jobs Today
Digging holes for info posts (Robert, Russell, Daniel, Fidel)
"The ground was soft and moist which helped with our digging. We got 4 or 5 holes dug"

Making Info Signs "no progress

Turning Compost over (Amaya)
"It went good..."

Picking Up Litter around school (Javier Andrew)
"We got 80 plus pieces of litter"

Gathering Leaves for compost (Kameron, Tiffany)
"no report"
Moving Pulled Wildflower to raingarden (Mr. I and Amaya)
"I actually got all of them done."

Taking Pictures (Tiffanee)
"No comment"

Worm Gathering
"No progress"
Weeds
"No Progress"
 
Homework
Jeremiah-"Timeline of the Revolutionary War"
Sara "Finished my math homework"
Kamorah "Finished missing work and todays homework from Math"
Dalante "Finished my homework on decimals and mixed numbers"


This Is thee 7th Grade Boys digging holes for the info
signs up over the rain garden

This is Daniel & Robert Taking A Break From
Digging
Tiffany Bringing Leaves To Add To The Compost

Monday, December 12, 2011

Litter Facts

  • 250 million tons of trash is generated each year in the U.S.
  • 4.6 pounds of waste is created every day by the average person.
  • Common litter includes cigarette butts, plastic bags, paper, candy wrappers, fast-food packaging, bottle caps, 6-pack can holders, glass bottles, and plastic straws.
  • Men and women are equally likely to litter.
  • People under age 15 are least likely to litter; people under the age of 25 are most likely to litter when in a group; and, people over the age of 25 are most likely to litter when alone.
  • In one single day, nearly 7 million pounds of litter were removed from beaches, lakes, and streams.
  • Animals from nearly 443 species are entangled in or ingest marine debris annually. The majority of these die from starvation, exhaustion, or infection.
  • People litter because:
    • there is a presence of other litter.
    • it’s the easiest way to get rid of unwanted things.
    • littering is acceptable by people who pay taxes to have someone else pick it up.
    • dumping is a social activity we learned from our parents and passed on unconsciously to our children.


Some Handicap Accessible Garden Plan Sites.

http://www.chesavage.com/planterbox/


http://www.apparelyzed.com/accessible-gardens/accessible-garden.html

Friday, December 9, 2011

What B Days Say about Gardening...

Daniel M-
What I like about the community garden is that you feel like your at home because you have to do something calm like you dont gotta be rushed. In other classes. But yea, its cool to just get out of the class and go outside and be with friends and work and breath fresh air.

Javier A-
What I like about the garden is that it iuse to be just a large grass field and now it is a garden.
I like to go outside and work on a lot of fun things too.

Fidel S-
What I like about the community garden is that I have it at the end of the day and I can just let out some of my energy and get some fresh air.

Russell-
My favorite thing about our garden class is that we get to go outside and work with the tools. My last reason is that we take pics of our garden and we have ducks in the pond!

Sara C-
My favorite things to do in the this class is to work at planting suff. I wish we could grow trees.

Kameron-
My favorite thing about the garden is the plants giving off oxygen

Amaya-
I like gardening because its fut to go outside at the endof the day. Also to not have to stay inside the whole time. Its so great to be able to not have to do homework the whole time and to have a nice teacher.

Robert-
My favorite thing in gardening  is the hands on work and using tools. I also enjoy a breath of fresh air from the outside.

Tiffany V-
I like how I can get on my fee and go outside instead of staying in a classroom. It makes me feel happy to let out my energy.

McKayla
I like the garden because you get to go ouside at the end of a long school day and let out your energy. It makes me feel happy because I can go outside.

Andrew
What I like about gardening is I get to help out the community and I learn about being in a garden. During break I'm buying the stuff to make a garden to be my moms xmas present. Thank you Mr. Iverson for teaching me about gardens.

James
The garden is a place where I can relax and work at the same time. Its a place where I can go outside and garden at the end of the day.

Dalante
When I am in the garden I like to plant and help out. even though I'm  not always on task thats what I like to do. I also like walk around and see what other people are doing in the garden.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

George Washington's Ivy!

While collecting litter today Javier and Andrew discovered this little ivy plant with a little plaque.
here is George Washington's ivy brought to Stewart Middle School as a gift by the class of 1932.

this plaque informs us that the ivy was brought from George Washington's home in Mt. Vernon in 1932 to commemorate his 200th (bicentennial) birthday.
Andrew and Javier were so inspired by this little piece of history that they decided to go out into the school and investigate other historical landmarks around the building.

Javier also thought that we should transplant the ivy and then sell it as a fundraiser. Mr. Iverson said that we should transplant parts of it and put it near our upper fence of the garden as decoration.

Even Stewart is full of suprises.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

GARDEN SIGN DAY!

Today we took a break from the cold weather outside and continued to make one page info signs and warnings for the garden.

Some of the signs included:

James: Raingarden
Tiffany and McKayla: Stay out of our beds
Jeremiah: Don't Smash our Plants
Sara: Black Berries (in progress)
Kamorah: Respect our garden space (in progress)
Amaya: Raingarden (in progress)

Others worked on homework.

It was a chilly day outside and a chill day inside.

Stay warm out there from your friends at the SCG!

Monday, December 5, 2011

Grantwork, Info Trail posters, and homework.

Today was mostly an inside day. Mr. Hoover and Mr. Iverson started downloading and filling out some upcoming grants that need to get completed soon.

Frank, Patrick, Frankie, Brittany and others were making informative posters to laminate and place on our Raingarden info Trail.

Patrick and Mikey worked on moving some composted woodchips to the Raingarden Trail.

Other students took the time to get caught up on homework.

Sorry that we didn't take any photos today but we were busy working inside.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Worms and Leaves and Composting Teams

Amaya holding up the wiggly gold a.k.a. worms for the compost

Kameron supplies the dead leaves that will eventually become...
worm food!

Tiffany and Amaya working as a team to locate our worm friends.
The technique we learned from our A Day Friend's instructional video below