On a recent trip to Memphis, Tennessee, I visited the Memphis Botanic Garden and The Dixon Gallery and Gardens. Both were fabulous places with wonderful plants (even if I was dripping with sweat after walking around them)!
The Memphis Botanic Garden is building a children's garden called "My Big Backyard." There is a PDF map of the plans here and information about the grand opening of the garden on August 1st, 2009, here. It promises to be whimsical and inspire new ways of interacting with plants! My photos from the MBG are in the slide show below.
I was not able to tour all of The Dixon gardens because I took so much time looking at the wonderful civil war exhibit inside the galleries. What I saw, however, was beautiful. Visitors are admitted to the galleries and gardens for free on Saturdays from 10 am to noon. Here are the photos I took there.
The Casey gardeners took a field trip to Fresh Way Produce at 6900 Old Canton Road in Ridgeland, Mississippi, on July 8, 2009. The Cockrell family owns and operates this market and has been in the produce business for over 40 years.
You can take a "virtual field trip" by viewing the photos from the market and reading their descriptions. If you click on the link, it will take you to a slide show on Flickr. By clicking anywhere on the photo, a description window will open. Let me know if you have trouble with this!
Everyone left the market with a new appreciation for the hard work of farmers, running a business, and yummy, fresh produce to eat! We learned about a Mississippi invention, local produce, and a teacher who now makes pickles for the market!
Below is the slide show of the field trip, but you can't see the photo descriptions unless you go directly to the Flickr set in the "virtual field trip" link above.
Our first tomato was ripe enough to harvest! This was a tomato plant that came up on its own from seeds left in the bed last year.
The milkweed pots were still bursting. The feathery seeds looked like white fire flames. The sweet potato vine is thriving in its home underneath the shade. I love the contrast of the bright green leaves with the dark green of the grass.
The dried beans that we planted last Wednesday were coming up in the small pots and in the bed with the corn! You can see the seeds hanging onto the sprout and the roots reaching out of the bottom of the pot. The zinnia seeds and lettuce leaf basil that we planted in small pots last week had also sprouted. The pumpkin seed still showed no signs of germination.
The purple flower belongs to the same beans that we planted and had sprouted above. Who could have imagined such beauty from a bean flower? I picked some flowers for a small arrangement in a plastic cup left over from germinating the squash seeds. The lettuce was withstanding the lack of rain, and a new tomato plant was blooming and bearing fruit.
There were so many things to see on July 1st including corn that continued to grow, a red pepper, a tiny spider and its web on the dill plant, and three more squash plants that a mystery person or persons planted since last week! Two families enjoyed watering and noticing all of the changes in the garden. Plus, we looked forward to eating a tomato and some beans fresh from the Casey garden with our suppers! See you next week.
The milkweed plants are fascinating. They developed seed pods that have been covered in little yellow bugs for weeks (yellow from the pollen?. . . aphids?). Yesterday, the first "new" thing I noticed about the garden was that the pods have started opening to reveal their feathery seeds. These feathers will work with the wind as transportation to carry the seeds to new places. Here is some information about milkweed seed propagation.
Mrs. Morgan brought some books and ideas to share with us. One of her favorite artists is Claude Monet who liked to paint gardens. You can learn more about him here. She also brought a calendar and showed us how she plans to record small amounts of information about the garden directly on her calendar in the squares for each day of the month. This is a good strategy to encourage observation and writing for people who may be intimidated or not have the time for writing longer journal-type entries, but it will also help us to remember important things we noticed about the garden's development. I could imagine that her calendar entry for yesterday might read, "we planted bean seeds that we harvested from a dried bean pod around our growing corn."
The photo above shows the color changes of these foot-long beans as they dry. The bean pod at the left was too dried up to eat, so we took the beans out to dry them. At first, they are light pink, but as they dry, they gradually turn to a deep purple-red to black. In this intense heat, we had beans drying at various stages. The black beans on the right are the are the beans we planted around our corn.
We watered, harvested cabbage and beans, pruned the basil and coleus, fed the turtles our discarded cabbage leaves and bean pods (which they began eating almost immediately), shared some books, marveled at the milkweed and corn growth, wished for the tomatoes to turn red, planted a squash seedling and watermelon plant started from seed, and planted some zinnia seeds, a pumpkin seed, and some lettuce-leaf basil in pots. We also planted some beans that were not dry and some dry beans to experiment and see if both will germinate or not. We predict that the dry beans will germinate but the wet ones will not.
Below is a slide show of my photos from the morning. We were a small crowd with only Mrs. Morgan, my son, and myself at first. Another family joined us later in the morning. Some of us started work at 8:30 am, and we didn't leave until 10:30 am! Working in the morning was definitely the way to go. In this heat wave, we could not have worked for nearly as long at noon.
We stopped by the garden to water and check on things. The garden group met this morning for the Tougaloo field trip, but my family was not able to go. Wow! We have corn that is 3 feet high, tomatoes growing plump, and beautiful containers. Some of the beds are a little too dry, and we have lost some plants and may be about to lose a few more to this heat wave. All but one of the sunflower seedlings dried up. The curry plant dried up a few weeks ago.
The beans, however, are doing great! We picked a large bunch and divided them between Mrs. Coleman and Mrs. Bennett. They will have a delicious addition to their supper tonight. Mrs. Coleman plans to saute hers.
Swiss Chard and green cabbage mix from the Casey Garden-- stir fried in some vegetable oil and soy sauce. Yum!
String beans "hanging out" at the Casey Garden
Started in the classroom during May, my daughter's Lima bean plant is starting to bear some fruit from the flower.
String beans picked, prepared, and waiting to be cooked by my daughter. They were delicious. She boiled them in some salted water, plunged them into ice water, and served them with our summer supper. I loved them! Best of all, because she grew them and cooked them, she tried them!
I saturated the photos above to match how much fun we are having with the garden! It is so rewarding to grow something, care for it, harvest it, and create something delicious (and healthy) for the table. Inspired by the Casey Garden, we have planted several vegetables in our yard: okra, zucchini squash, yellow squash, several tomato varieties, green peppers, Japanese eggplant, and watermelons. We've also added to our herb garden and have started some sunflower plants from seed for the birds. We are having the best time watching everything grow and differentiate. Even if our plants don't produce much (because our planting times may have been off), we are learning through the process.
At this week's summer garden gathering, we watered the dry soil and drying plants, harvested a few beans, read several books about the seed to plant process, shared some freshly picked local blueberries, and made our own garden observation journals from recycled materials. If you missed making the journals, there are many online resources to help you make one of your own.
www.makingbooks.com has several different journal types that could be used for a garden observation journal. We made a modified Stick and Elastic Book recycling a cereal box for the cover and using a magnolia twig for the stick.
You could also use the instructions on the www.kidsgardening.com website here. This journal is slightly more involved to make, but the helping hands of a parent could make it possible. If you make a journal on your own at home, please bring it to the garden to show the rest of us and to use for your observations!
The books we read and perused were from the Jackson-Hinds Library System. We checked these out from the Willie Morris Branch from the 580's of the children's section. The children at our gathering would have read every book if we had let them! They were so interested in the illustrations and photographs and hungry to learn more about plants. The last book we read was about hungry plants or carnivorous plants. Everyone was fascinated and learned something new. If you have gardening books at home or visit a public library to check some out, bring them to share with our gardening group!
Lastly, here are some ideas for how to use your hand-made field journal:
Choose a plant and observe it every day or once a week for a period of time. Really look at it closely. Measure it and record its growth. Sketch it. Photograph it. Ask questions about it.
Write poetry about a plant, gardening, or eating something from the garden.
Write a short story about a gardening experience.
Make plans for what you might want to plant next in your garden.
Collect photos of plants from seed catalogs, newspapers, or magazines.
Record things you learn about plants from gardening books checked out of the library. A librarian can help you find fiction and nonfiction books about plants or gardening.
Include a recipe you used to prepare something harvested from the garden.
Write from a specific perspective (other than your own), such as that of worm tunneling under their green oasis.
Find a spot outside and sit quietly for 5 minutes. Use your senses to absorb the scene and then record observations, ideas, and feelings. What do you hear, see, smell, taste, feel?
Doodle, draw, paint, collage, reflect. . .
What ideas do you have?
You can bring your field journal to the garden each week to share with the group and to continue your observations about the progress of the garden. If you keep your field journal all summer, you will have something to share with your new classmates and your new teacher when you start school in August! You can also share it at our Summer's Celebration on August 5th, 2009!
It is not too late to join the work and fun of the Casey Garden! If you are interested, post a comment below. Everyone is welcome. Coming next Wednesday: a field trip to the Tougaloo Sustainable Community Garden!
On Friday, June 5, 2009, parents, students, teachers, and friends of Casey Elementary met for a summer orientation and preview of summer gardening events. In the photo above, Melanie Allen prepared tomatoes from the farmer's market with basil from our garden! Serenity Luckett (above right), gave a history of the garden project and introduced future summer activities. Since Casey is a creative arts school, we especially hope to encourage students and families to create art inspired by the garden. Gardening + Art = gARTening!
Andy Williamson (camera-man in bottom left corner), from Mississippi Public Broadcasting's Mississippi Roads, is following the Casey Garden throughout the summer to produce a show about gardening in schools. He hopes that his piece will inspire other schools to catch the gardening bug. Mr. Williamson also filmed footage at garden activities during the Casey Family Arts Festival and when students harvested lettuce and spinach for a teacher appreciation salad during the last week of school.
During the orientation, Mrs. Allen helped the children label all plants, harvest vegetables that were ready, and plant new plants. We harvested onions, cabbages, Swiss chard, and pole beans that everyone could take home for cooking and eating. We also fed the Casey turtles some of the cabbage! We planted eggplant, watermelon, sunflowers, and cucumber plants.
As a final activity, Julie Owen helped students to plant their own pots with zinnia seeds and their own peat pellets with a squash seed for germinating at home. We encouraged all participants to monitor the progress of their seeds and sprouts with measurement and careful observation. Some of the squash seedlings may be transplanted to the Casey Garden in empty portions of the beds.
Students gathered outside of the "turtle courtyard" to watch the turtles munch away on cabbage leaves placed out for them only minutes before.
The next garden meeting is Wednesday, June 10, 2009, at noon. Please bring a picnic lunch and plenty of water to drink! We will be indoors for part of the meeting to make our own garden observation journals out of recycled materials. Please bring any empty cereal boxes you may have, magazines or newspaper photos of gardens, seed catalogs, or drawings that can be cut and pasted to decorate our covers.
If you are interested in participating in the Casey Garden, please post a comment below. We need families to take turns watering the garden each week. A tentative schedule for summer garden activities is listed below, but please be aware that events/dates may change as the summer progresses.
June 5: Orientation, planting of seeds in individual pots as well as garden boxes,
June 10: Regular picnic, make observation journals from recycled materials, art introduction
June 24: Regular picnic day with book reading or garden activity
July 1: Regular picnic day with book reading or garden activity
July 8: Meet at Farmer's Market in Jackson, take tour of market and talk to farmers, each child buy one item, meet back at Casey for picnic and discussion about farmer's market
July 15: Regular picnic day with book reading or garden activity
Clausell Elementary created Chinese puppets using recycled milk gallons, brads, and coat hangers. When students from Casey saw these, they wanted to take them down from the wall, give them life, and improvise their own puppet show!
This Casey student's writing includes hopes for her own future as well as Jackson's future:
I want to be an architect when I grow up so I can help people rebuild and redesign old buildings. It would help Jackson because Jackson has a lot of old buildings. I want to help make them a better place so people can enjoy them. I hope that other people will rebuild buildings. I want to have some buildings look like art. They will be colorful. The JumpstART project gave the children of Jackson some colorful days. For some students, the JumpstART project provided their first opportunity to paint or work with an artist. For other students, the project may have helped them learn a core curriculum area at a deeper level or experience an art form in a new way. For some students, the JumpstART project may have opened doors or planted seeds for future careers. The city of Jackson should be proud of what Ask4MoreArts and Parents for Public Schools Greater Jackson has done working together with Jackson Public Schools, the business community, and local artists. As a parent, I have been inspired and reminded of the hope that springs from a community working together towards the common goal of creating rich learning experiences for the children of this city. If you want to learn more about JumpstART, try these links:
The Jackson Free Press featured an article about JumpstARThere.
You can read about the partnership between artist Sarah C. Campbell and Davis Magnet School on her blog here.
You can read articles about Casey's Jumpstart project on this blog under the label "JumpstART 2009."
Art smart parents prepare bubbles for the celebration.
The last week of April hosted another successful year of Rhymes on Rhymes Place. Casey Elementary's carpool line is on a street named Rhymes Place. When her daughter was a first grade student at Casey, Thea Faulkner had a light-bulb moment while waiting to pick up her daughter in the Rhymes Place line. After talking and brainstorming with other parents, Rhymes on Rhymes Place was begun. This year's event is the third annual celebration of poetry and rhyming. It is a sustainable and special project coordinated by art smart parents who know that supporting teachers and students in creative ways helps everyone learn more and have fun in the process!
This year's parents assisted and led events all week long with an interactive and arts-integrated visit from Mother Goose (Julie Owen) and a visit from Monique McMillon who assists children in making special hats that correlate to poetry. Parents help children make pop-up books for their rhymes, they supervise writing rhymes on the sidewalk with chalk, and they facilitate copying rhymes onto a recycled billboard that becomes the Rhymes Place banner.
On the final day of the week-long focus on rhymes and poetry, all first grade students help to unveil their collective masterpiece on Rhymes Place. Parents provide bubbles and popsicles to help the children celebrate their hard work and creativity. Below is a short video of the unveiling!
If you are a first grade parent, I would love to hear about your thoughts and experiences of this special event. What did your child or children learn about rhyming and poetry? Did they have good stories to tell about the Rhymes on Rhymes Place week? Having participated in the event for three years, I believe it improves each year from everyone's ideas and collective wisdom.
This is a Flickr badge showing items in a set called Casey Elementary. Make your own badge here.
Casey's Arts Pledge
I pledge to learn everything I can about myself and the world around me through the arts and all other subjects. And I pledge to use my imagination to solve problems and to express my ideas because Casey is a creative arts school.
About Casey Elementary
Casey Elementary is an elementary school in the Jackson Public School District of Jackson, Mississippi. The mission of Casey Elementary School is to focus on student achievement by providing a challenging and engaging curriculum for a diverse, multiculutral student body. In doing so, Casey incorporates the art forms of music, dance, drama, and visual arts into the curriculum. Each student is challenged to develop and achieve essential academic skills, as well as an appreciation and understanding of their artistic surroundings, in order to become a successful, well-rounded, productive citizen. Casey is a Model Whole School of the Mississippi Arts Commission.
My name is Julie Owen. You may contact me at nolteowen@yahoo.com. I am a mother of two children in Jackson Public Schools, I work half-time as an elementary school librarian, and I am a volunteer arts education advocate. This blog reflects the voices of parents about arts integration. It is not meant to represent the views of Jackson Public Schools or of Casey Elementary.
I invite other parents, teachers, administrators, students, artists, and community members to comment or become official, posting members of this moderated blog.
