Spring Garden Adventures #1 - Introductions

Today I teach the first session of a Garden Adventures program with two groups of Homeschool Club students, 5 - 8 years old.  We introduce ourselves and the Garden Adventures program. 
Students settle in, experimenting with microscopes to observe seed heads and insects.

Here's a butterfly wing!  You can even see the scales.

We then color butterflies exotic designs too.

Then we take time to make beautiful journal covers, by cutting and pasting photos from flower and vegetable catalogs.

We will use the journals for drawing, diagrams and reflection each week.

We read together the "I Like Bugs" poem by Margaret Wise Brown.
I love this poem.

Bugs! by Margaret Wise Brown
Illustrated by Carolyn Thomas

The simple rap appeals from pre-K to 5th grade, and sets the tone for respecting worms, pillbugs, grubs and other wildlife we'll find outside. 
We discuss "rules n' tools", other expectations for going outside as a class.

We go out to explore the Garden. It's a small courtyard garden managed by Master Gardeners with raised beds. Several students identify the Kale or Broccoli growing in the Vegetable Bed... 

...and take a photo of a raindrop on a leaf.

One student from each group identifies the Dogwood in bud - and tells me where another Dogwood like this grows in their neighborhood. We talk about the patterns of the Dogwood bud and flower.  Next week the Dogwood might be in flower?

On the way back to class, Ms Harrison from Parks and Recreation invites us to view the chicken eggs incubating! They will be hatching in 21 days or so...

Resources

Microscopes - Magiscopes

Next week's theme for Garden Adventures #2 is Soils