Graduating the Garden

Healthy Snack Week (HSW) is over! And Senior Project is almost officially over! I can't believe this year is almost done. HSW was pretty stressful and I'm glad it's over, but it was still worthwhile and I think the kids loved it! The posters all turned out really cute and the winners of the contest were 5th grade, Mrs. Rivers class. They got strawberry banana smoothies. Their poster was a popout poster with a weaved fruit basket on a beach with a rather muscular man excercising. And then they went so far as to put out an actual fruit basket with fruit in it-- for the judges only of course. Bribe? Perhaps, but it was cute. I made about $120 for the week, so only about a $20 profit. I wasn't doing it for the profit, so it doesn't matter. Here are some of the pictures of the posters:

And the winners were... Mrs. Rivers' class!

Anyway, as far as the garden goes, the potatoes are sprouting! I will probably continue the garden and continue composting with the 4th grade til the end of school even though Senior Project will officially be over. I need to talk to the 4th grade teachers about hopefully continuing the garden next year. Also, I'd like to add in the compost to the beds once the potatoes are harvested at the very end of the year. And that'll be it!

I have learned a lot from my project this year, both from the research paper and the actual project. I will be continuing the garden at my home in the summer so as to further my gardening education. I find gardening soothing to the nerves and the heart, as cliche as that sounds. I'm really glad I chose this for my project- it's been tough at times, but I pulled through and I feel like I've accomplished something worthwhile. I now have to put together my portfolio. Goodbye and thanks for reading all year long!

Laura Godenick

Healthy Snack Week

It has finally come. Next week is the week that I provide snacks to the lowerschool- grades 3rd-5th. I emailed Mrs. Locke the plan:

During the week of the 21st, I will be providing home made healthy
snacks for the lowerschool students to purchase (as a part of my
senior project). Snacks will cost 75 cents for each day. Each day of
the week, I will have a different snack available. If teachers could
remind their students to bring 75 cents a day if they want a snack,
that would be great. I have also asked Mrs. Ledbetter to put a
reminder in the Knightly News so that parents know what I'm doing and
know to give their child money for this upcoming week. The snacks are
as follows:

Monday- banana muffins
Tuesday- granola and yogurt
Wednesday- popcorn
Thursday- trail mix
Friday- ants on a log (with peanut butter or cream cheese for children
who are allergic to peanuts)

 (all snacks are homemade and healthy)

I will also be handing out posters tomorrow to every class grades
3rd-5th. With these posters, each class must decorate it in some way
to promote a healthy and active lifestyle. Tape the poster on the outside of the
doors. Be creative! I and a few other seniors will be judging the best
posters next Wednesday. The winner of the healthy poster contest will
be getting free fruit smoothies on Friday at lunch!
Snacks will be available for purchase in the lunchroom from 8:00 to
8:30 and the kids can take it back to their classrooms and eat it at
snack time. Because the yogurt and granola needs to be refrigerated,
on Tuesday, the kids can come pay for their snack in the morning and
then when it is snack time, I will deliver the yogurt to each class to
make things easier. Or a teacher can specify when they are eating
snack and I can bring them their yogurt.

So that is what's happening next week! Sunday is going to be super busy, as will every night of the week be. But, because next week is what would have been "Adventure Week", things aren't very busy, so I'll be alright. That's it for now!

Potatoes and Plans

Last week, I finally planted potatoes among other seeds. The process was orderly and efficient- I took 5 4th graders at a time to plant a row of potatoes until I finished with Mrs. West's class and Mrs. Nethery's. Everyone got to be involved and plant at least 1 potatoe. Then Monday, I took Mrs. Lummus's class, 5 at a time, to plant other seeds. The potatoes, I have read, grow rather quickly, so I am hoping to see them pop out of the ground within the next few weeks.

I think they all had a good time planting. Coming up is the Healthy Snack week. It's going to be during what used to be Adventure week. On the first day, I'll have samples for the kids to try so they know what they like and then for the rest of the week, they can purchase a snack. I also hope for Mrs. Gibson, an organic farmer to come and speak to the kids. I will also be handing out posters to the classrooms for the students to decorate, the theme being a healthy lifestyle. The winners will get a healthy, delicious, home-made snack! The next few weeks will be busy for me, so I hope all goes well! 

Planting Anew

Friday I am officially planting potatoes. I know I said I was going to do that last week, but I always felt like it was still too early. I have talked with Mrs. Lummus regarding the right time to meet on Friday. She asked if I had enough potatoes for every 4th grader to plant (there are 43 of them), which I don't think I have. My beds are only so big, but I told her that I wanted to plant more onions and brocolli, so hopefully every 4th grader will plant something. This coming week, I will send Mrs. Ledbetter my "Healthy Snack Week" advertisement- the parents need to know about it the next time the Knightly News comes out. Next weekend, I need to look into actually purchasing the snacks in bulk. These are the type of potatoes I bought:

Yukon Gold

 

 Superior


Pontiac


This past week, our senior class watched FoodInc in support of my senior project. I know every time I watch that documentary, I get something new from it and I hope everyone else benefitted from watching it. I know Mrs. Tewkesbury asked to borrow it over the weekend as well as Mrs. Zion. Also, this past week, I sent my research paper to my grandparents who live in Washington state, and they told me they enjoyed it immensely. My grandpa is a doctor and shares the same passion for health as my mom and I do. That's all for now.

On the Brink of a New Adventure

So, I was supposed to plant potatoes today, but it was rainy when I woke up, so I have decided to delay the grand event til next week. I emailed Mrs. Lummus and she thought it best to delay anyways- she thinks it is still too early to plant. So, I hope to come through with my plan next week. I did purchase the potatoes though: One pack of Yukon Gold, one of Superior, and one of Pontiac. I have also purchased onion seeds, brocolli seeds, and swiss chard seeds. Perhaps this time around, my garden will be more successful. It was successful at first, but then bad weather showed up, which was obviously impossible to prevent. Anyway, this past week, I did clear out the rest of the dead plants from the beds. Surprisingly enough, some raddishes were still growing, but I uprooted them anyways. There is still cabbage, but I'm not quite sure when the right time to pick it is. I'll need to research that because they look ready to harvest.
 I also really need to start thinking about which snacks to purchase for the lowerschool "Healthy Snack Week". As I've said before, this week will probably be the week before adventure week and I did contact a local organic farmer who said she would come speak to the lower school. I need to get that date set in stone and talk to Mrs. Locke about a good time. I also need to email Mrs. Ledbetter soon so she can put in a small advertisement in the Knightly News reminding parents to sent their kids with money during this week. The poster contest is still on for each class! All they have to do is create a poster promoting a healthy lifestyle and I will be the judge! I'm not sure what they will win yet, but it'll be something good. Tomorrow is senior club day and we will be watching part of FoodInc, which I am quite excited about! I ordered it on Amazon on Tuesday and it has arrived just in time! That's all for now, folks! Until next Thursday night.

Home Stretch

Another week gone by in Senior Project! We are almost done, which is really hard to believe. I remember the stress of it all last year when we were being pressured to think about what we wanted our projects to concern and now, here we are, almost at our journey's end. Sadly, nothing has changed since my last blog post- I have continued to compost with the 4th graders, but now only once a week instead of twice or more. They are still excited as ever about the garden that is kind of in limbo right now. Sometimes when I take a few volunteers to compost, one of them will talk about their garden at home, which always makes me excited. This weekend, I will need to uproot the remains of the pre-snow week garden so as to make room for the potatoes and other seeds which we will plant next week! I'm hesitant about planting this coming week though, because I hear of another possible snow day coming up sometime next week- we'll see. I think potatoes can take a frosting, though- they're tough. And I don't want to delay planting any longer! I'm eager to have new seedlings sprout from the ground!

 I really hope that my raised beds will be able to stay in place next year so that the 4th grade teachers can use it to their liking- but what with this new parking lot being installed and all, I'm not sure my gardening beds will remain. I have put a lot of time, energy, and even money into them and would really like to see them being used for educational purposes next year- I don't want my project to end when Senior Project is over- it's something that I would like to last at Oakbrook as a unique part of the curriculum and it's something that I hope will continue to grow. It's an introduction to a way of life that is out of style, yet I still think it a valuable way to live and to understand. Organic gardening is a basic concept of life's cycle, which I think it important to learn at a young age. Anyway, now I'm rambling about why I'm so passionate about my project. Hopefully next week, I'll have something more to talk about!

Change in Plans

 A new change in plans, yet again! Lately I have been feeling really nervous and unsure of "healthy snack week" because I don't think that teenagers will have a positive response to my efforts in eliminating, or at least limiting, their junk food intake. If there's one thing I've learned in the past, it's that it is extremely difficult to make people care about something that they don't normally care about, much less something that I am passionate about. I don't really think that I can stop bad eating habits with one week of awareness- it's more of a lifestyle that people must be accustomed to. Instead, I want to have "healthy snack week" in the lower school only- kids are much more willing to try new things, especially if someone older presents the idea. I think I'll be more successful with younger kids.

This weekend, I plan on purchasing the potatoes in order to plant them next week with the 4th graders. I also need to test my soil, for my own educational purposes, so as to remedy whatever the soil's deficiencies are. I also emailed an organic farmer named Robin Gibson who agreed to come and speak to the elementary students during "healthy snack week" to promote an organic and healthy lifestyle. This week will begin on the 14th of March and end on the 18th. I talked to Mrs. Locke earlier this week to get the "ok" from her and she's on board! To hype the kids up during the week, we'll have a poster contest from 3rd to 5th grade and the class with the best poster, promoting a healthy lifestyle, wins a prize that I have yet to come up with! That's all the progress I've made so far...