Gardens are great to lift our spirits during the pandemic. While schools are closed, some Little Green Thumbs indoor gardens are still growing. Every situation is different and it’s clearly an exception that some teachers maintained their indoor garden or found other creative ways to share plant growth with their students.
So here are a few notes and images to share during this strange period.
From Holy Spirit School
Mrs. Matheson reports “Over the last 6 weeks, I have taken photos of the plants, sometimes using a meter stick to show the growth. I have sat in front of the Earth box so that the snap peas were behind me as a backdrop as I created a video and read to the students, to help them get a sense of how tall they grew. I took close ups of the blossoms, and now of the actual little snap pea pods that are developing.
I have the students continue to write little entries into their plant journals. I have assigned books about the growth of plants for them to read through the site Epic books. I did take photos of the one lonely cucumber plant that had grown at school and was thriving, showing how it too was climbing the mesh, had produced blossoms and how those blossoms actually were the place that cucumbers grew from. Although we were not at school together. my students have been watching the amazing wonder of how plants grow!”
From Rio Terrace School
Frau Gille writes: “This morning I was at our school and I haven't dismantled the indoor garden yet, but switched off the lights and packed up the tomato and pepper plants and brought them home. I harvested the Swiss Chard and ate it (and was once again amazed at how long it takes for it to grow so big and then it's such a small portion ..)! I had already picked the snap peas before Easter, there were about 20 of them.
I made packages for all students that the parents picked up, including nasturtium seeds we harvested last fall from our school garden, hoping the students would plant them with their parents at home. So that they can at least garden a little more at home!”
From Madonna School
Ms Noel also planted an outdoor school garden: “At Madonna we have been able to keep our garden going and growing. I have come in every couple of days to water. (Thankfully I live very near by).
When parents came to pick up belongings at various times, I sent home beans and Swiss chard with students. A little girl said she is planting some of the bean seeds indoors at her home, to plant them in her own garden this summer.
We have some green Tiny Tim tomatoes on 4 plants (seeded in January) and about 13 other cherry tomato plants (seeded in early March) that I keep transplanting into larger containers in hopes of getting them outside in our school garden.
I am going to do an outdoor garden at school and hope that families will be able to visit it (maybe at the end of May/June or even into the summer). That way come September the kinders who will then be in grade one, will be able to see and eat some of the plants!”
From Centennial School
Ms Lissinna has been sharing her garden bounty with the children by making videos and she writes: “Last week I sent a video about our garden to my children as a part of our plant unit and work they are doing at home. I have been going in to water our garden once or twice a week. It is still doing well. We have had 4 or 5 students say how they notice our garden when they are out for walks and they stop by to look in the window. Parents say how interested the kids are in how much it has grown. You may remember we have those very large windows all along one wall of our room and that bright light draws attention. The only down side is that we aren't able to share our vegetables. We ate some of our kale and lettuce before we had to leave, but they won't get to share any of the rest. I attempted to bring the tomato home. I will see how it goes. I just transplanted it into another pot. I thought of trying to transplant the pepper, but I don't think it would do well because it is so big.”
From Parkallen School
Ms Agrell-Smith sent an update and new video on May 25: "I make a weekly garden tour video to share the growth in the garden; I ask students to leave a comment in our Google Classroom under the link to the tour and then we discuss our garden at my class meetings. The kids are still really excited about gardening and seeing how the plants are doing. More students have started their own gardens at home. One of my students has decided to try to grow anything that she can find (seeds in apples, scraps from the kitchen). She has tried almost all the ideas growing from kitchen scraps videos that I shared and she shares their growing progress at each class meeting."
From Mary Butterworth School
Ms Nahirney sent several photos of the garden her students planted pretty much on their own. “I went in to check on my garden and harvested FOUR cucumbers!! I sent pictures to the students in the class that planted these :-)”
From Windsor Park School
Ms Wilson had to clean up her garden and decided to haul two boxes with lush tomatoes and cucumbers to her backyard patio, with her dog supervising the operation. Fingers crossed the plants survived the chilly weather and produced some veggies.
From Mount Royal School
Ms Stauffer has been going to check on the garden and sharing footage with students while she explores what’s growing. There are ripening peppers and tomatoes, lots of basil, kale and Swiss Chard. The cucumbers are flowering and she has pulled some large carrots!
I hope these stories are heart-warming for you as well and we hope that students can return to their classrooms and indoor gardens in the fall!
Claudia Bolli, Little Green Thumbs
