October in the Garden!

The Hawks' Garden began to see the first signs of fall in October, with all kinds of weather: rain, cold, sunshine and heat.

With the transition from summer into fall comes the end of the plant life cycle for many of our plants; flowers are going to seed and fruits are ripening on trees in abundance. The pomegranates were a particular favorite for many of the students’ tastebuds and the fig tree provided a tasty snack for lots of our bird visitors. The main science theme in the outdoor classroom this October was Plant Life Cycles.

The first and second graders were greeted by the science question: where do seeds come from? They searched around the garden using their observation skills to try and solve this mystery. Many of the students were very astute in noticing that the sunflowers, as they are dying, are producing many seeds. This was the perfect hands-on example for the students to see that seeds come from flowers. Once they learned this, they opened up their nature journal to practice scientific drawing, detailing the sunflowers and their seeds inside.

Meanwhile, the third to fifth graders also focused on life cycles, with a plant life cycle scavenger hunt. They had to find a different plant in the garden for each stage of the life cycle: seed, sprout, adult, flower, and fruit, and draw a picture for each in their journal. The garden provided many options for these different cycle stages, like lettuce sprouts, fruit trees, cosmo flowers, and onion flowers going to seed.

While most students focused on life cycles in the garden, the kindergarten scientists discovered the garden through their 5 senses. They began the garden class with a “Sense Safari” and then discussed the 5 senses and what they can be used for.

Finally, the kindergarteners each harvested a basil leaf to describe using all five of their senses, including taste. The kindergarteners also delighted in spotting and observing the many monarch caterpillars we have in our milkweed plant.