After a long winter and with the traditional pea planting day being St. Patrick's Day, Kim Kunkle's first grade class recently toured the garden at Vernon Elementary school to conduct a science experiment . Students who harvested and tasted from the garden at the beginning of the school year planted a row of peas in the ground and planted a tray of peas to be started in the classroom. Unfortunately with school being closed until sometime in April, and peas taking three to seven days to emerge, students will not be able to witness our classroom sprouts coming up.
While our indoor peas may not be observed, I did find on a walk last weekend at Black Gum Swamps, that several acorns I picked up from the trail had roots emerging. This is also a great time to explore in our own backyards tree buds, sprouts, earthworms in the compost, signs of tunnels left by critters who lived beneath the snow all winter and even rabbit, porcupine and other animal scat (poop).
A fun family activity is to create a nature and or garden journal with our school aged citizen scientists. Students can date, draw and note their observations every day throughout the growing season. - Norma Manning; Photographs by Kim Kunkle
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| Each of Kim Kunkle's first graders planted peas in a tray and in our school garden |
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| Students exploring what became of last year's garden at VES. Their row of peas are on the left. |
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