A Pit Firing of Clay Seed Pots

To prepare for our outdoor pit firing of seed pots, we had to clean out the Three Sister's garden.  While we were at it, we cleaned out the other gardens.  We decide to keep the sunflowers for the birds to feed on all winter!

             

 A Pit Firing 

Last Friday started out chilly, but with the physical labor of digging a pit and collecting wood, we soon warmed up! 

We bury our pots in the sawdust.

Then start the fire with newspaper and wood.  

A BIG THANK YOU to Mrs. Bando who helps us with this project each year!

Planting Tulip Bulbs

        As we are putting our summer gardens to bed, we are now planting tulip bulbs. We are participating in this project as part of Journey North:Citizen Scientists Studying Plants, Climates, and the Seasons. In this international science experiment, students in schoolyards across the northern hemisphere plant tulip bulbs in their Journey North Test Gardens each fall. When the plants emerge and bloom, children announce springtime in their part of the world. You can follow our journey on the Journey North link on this blog.  

First we examined bulbs as we wondered what's stored inside.

Is a bulb a seed? How is it different from our pumpkin, bean and corn seeds?

Then, using an arm balance we weighed our bulbs.
They are heavier than our Three Sister's garden seeds.

Why do we plant bulbs in the fall?

We use a grid system to keep track of where we planted each bulb so we can identify our tulip in the spring.

Finally we added water.  We are wondering, when will our tulips emerge and bloom?

Hood Museum: Outdoor Sculpture Tour

This sculpture had interesting lines, shapes and spaces to explore.  

       Seeing a squirrel nearby had us wondering if this
could be a good house for her.

Striking a pose on this sculpture.

X-Delta was the definitely our favorite sculpture as we made it move!

Showing off our sculpture creations at Dartmouth College.

A big thank you to all the parents and community members who have volunteered to chaperone  this year. We wouldn't be able to make these trips without your support!

All School Hike!

We had lots of fun on the hike last Friday.
 Many thanks to all the chaperones who joined us.

When we returned to school we had time to cut
 and seed our pumpkins for future pie making.

Second Grade Gardeners

                   The second grade has enjoyed a great fall gardening season. 
                      We were all a little sad to see the frost this morning.