Week 6 Update - Young Farmers

Welcome to our new student, Lincoln! We started the day with a group game of Jedi dodgeball. Our class then broke off and learned how to play Monarchs & Viceroys which teaches the concept of biomimicry.

During sit spot, we exercised our oft-neglected sense of smell. This led a discussion about how smells are connected to memories. 

After snack we did our farm chore which was to plant garlic! Garlic has a very long growing season and there’s a small window for getting it into the ground. Farmer Ryan explained the spacing and proper depth for planting the cloves. We planted five different varieties this year. The kids also helped mix up potting soil and harvested ashwagandha berries with Ms. Tammy, which will be saved for seed. 

Our topic this week was all about native plants, which are generally defined as plants that have not been affected by human intervention. Native plants are ideal for gardens because they are adapted to the local climate, so they require much less water and maintenance than non-native plants. They also support the local ecosystem by supplying food for native insect pollinators, birds, reptiles, and mammals. We learned how to prepare bluebonnet seeds by sandpapering the hard outer coat. We then planted them in pots to get them ready for transplanting in late winter / early spring.  We also planted native milkweed seeds on pots.

Finally, we created a pool to see who can correctly predict the first frost date (average for Hill Country is November 25th.)

After lunch, the kids enjoyed the fast paced game of Capture the Flag, then moved to the big field where half the class played football and the other half enjoyed the challenge of chasing and picking up chickens.