Senior Citizen Center

Tuesday May 2 ,2012 Junior Rangers and Farm Stand went to a senior citizen center home to garden. There we meet a lady who was continuing a garden that her mother started. In her mothers honor, we helped weed, water, and add mulch. In the garden there are going to be flowers, grass, and herbs. They will also have a place where you can come relax and enjoy the weather. For the next two Tuesdays we are going to continue to help with the work in the garden. We enjoy the opportunity to go out and help the community.

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!

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

A Mole Lot Of Fun!

Our guacamole recipe!

This week, we made Guacamole with Georgia King Village and Bradly Court. Guacamole has avocado which conatins Vitiman A. This is good for your eye sight.  The guacamole was used for a dip while the kids used tortilla chips to dip inside. They enjoyed the guacamole even though they thought it looked gross at first. We altered the recipe a little. We used salsa instead of tomatos and onions, but it turned out great! Therefore you can try it that way. Overall everything went well and the kids really loved it.

Making guacamole at Georgia King Village

Guacamole and salsa at Bradley Court

Gardening Developments

Good news, guys! Our plants have made progress! About a month ago, we planted seeds such as radish, lettuce, carrots etc. When we went to Georgia King Village this week, the plants had grown about 3 inches tall. That was really good, but when we went to Bradley Court today, guess what? They had grown 7.5 inches tall! We were really surprised at how tall it had grown. So today we watered the plants and weeded the plant beds. We are hoping to see an even greater progress next week! Can't wait!

GKV March 28, 2012

GKV April 18, 2012

BC March 29, 2012

BC April 19, 2012

Environmental Uno

Our activity for this week was to play Environmental Uno. For those who haven't played Uno or forgot how to play, it its very simple. All you have to do is match the number and/or color to the card on top of the deck. When one of the players has one card left they say Uno or Uno out. The first player to get rid of all his cards wins.
With environmental Uno, we had the cards in different categories. For example, there were red, blue, green, and brown sections that correspond to different things in the environment. At Georgia King Village, since there were a few more kids then expected, we had to split the group of about 8 in half. In all, the game went on smoothly and the kids seemed to enjoy it. We only had time for one game because the first one took a little longer than usual.

As for Bradly Court, unfortunately we didn't have time to do the game of Environmental Uno. Instead, we took the kids outside and had them play Simon says. At first, it was a little crazy because the kids didn't want to listen, but after a while, they did, and we got the game started. But that's not all, we also had the kids who lost at Simon says go with another Junior Ranger to play Red Light Green Light so they wouldn't get bored.

We are happy to teach kids fun games to keep their bodies and minds active!