Friday, April 27, 2012

Earth Day in the Garden :)

This week, the Youth Gardens was pretty successful. Yesterday at Georgia King Village, the weather was windy but sunny. We are seeing impressive progress in the garden. The peas are 9 inches tall, the lettuce is 2 inches tall, the radish greens are 3 inches tall, the cabbage is 2 inches tall, and the carrots are 2 centimeters tall. We are seeing good progress, and we hope that it continues on schedule.


There were three kids at the garden at GKV, and they all had a turn to water the plants. We had to take out some dying plants in one of the barrels and we planted new seeds in the barrels. In one of the large beds, we had to take out some of the cabbage plants due to the fact that each plant needs adequate space to grow and spread their roots.

Weeding the peas at GKV
Watering the carrots at GKV
The weather at Bradley Court was a little drizzly with a lot of humidity. The progress of the garden was a lot better than we all had expected. The radishes are 6 inches, the beets are 4 inches, the kale is 6 1/2 inches, the carrots are 6 1/2 inches and the peas are 11 inches. These measurements are from the kids themselves. We started out with five kids but three more kids came along for a total of eight kids. We didn't have to water due to the fact that it was going to rain, but we let the kids water the plants to get them involved. There were a lot of weeds in multiple beds but we were able to take them out.

Measuring the peas at BC

Earth Day Activities

#TeamActivitesCrew
Junior Rangers started out the day with gardening, however after that we went straight to activity. At Georgia King Village, the kids participated in Limbo and they had a wonderful time.  Activites crew brought a large stick that was pruned off a tree at the Outdoor Learning Center. Two Junior Rangers held the stick while the kids went under. Most kids won, while the Junior Rangers lost, but what matters is that they had fun.
Sadly, it rained at Bradly Court, so we had an indoor activity. We played the True or False game with an Earth Day theme. One Junior Ranger held a True sign while another Junior Ranger held the False sign. We read statements about the earth and environment, and the kids ran to the true or false side. Some statements were funny, like, "The sky is purple." Others were less obvious, like, "Clouds are made of water." Hopefully they learned some things about the environment!

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Earth Day Snacks

Sunday was Earth Day. Junior Rangers went to Georgia King Village and Bradley Court. As a part of the kitchen crew, our main focus was creating a snack for the kids that was healthy yet good and that they would enjoy. We centered the snack around Earth Day. We filled a cup with different fruits that could represent the different layers of the earth. For example, peaches and strawberries represented lava; Low Fat Honey Graham Crackers were the dirt; we used blueberries and blackberries as the water; kiwi slices stood for grass, and we used whipped cream for the clouds. The kids enjoyed the snack very much. They even asked where you buy the fruit from and how much it is. One of the children at Georgia King Village, had learned about the layers of the Earth in school and said the snack was a better way to learn because you can eat it. At Bradley Court, one girl said it was her first time trying kiwi, and she loved it. She said she was going to ask her mother to buy her some from the store.

Peaches, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, and kiwi -
Earth parfaits are fun with fruit!


Making whipped cream! 

Enjoying the perfect Earth parfait!
Crushing graham crackers to represent the crust of the Earth