Brainstorming with 4th Grade Green Team

Generating ideas and posting them on the wall.

"Plants and Trees"

Very Organized!

During our first green team meeting of the year, fourth grade students brainstormed ideas for projects to work on this year. They wrote one idea they wanted to work on or learn about on a sticky note and put it up on the cafeteria walls. They then had to collaboratively sort their ideas into similar topics. 

They had ideas ranging from planting trees, to learning about snakes and butterflies, to saving energy and cleaning up the schoolyard. 

 

The most popular topic was plants and trees, followed by learning about animals/wildlife, and then litter cleanups, recycling and composting. 

It was fun to watch them work out how and why certain topics should go together. And it was inspiring to see the range of things they are interested in and care about already!

"Help Animals"

"Save the World" and "Have Fun"

Talking through how to categorize their ideas.

spring time springing!

With warmer days and less cool nights finally here to stay, the Fairview Greenhouse is stocked and ready for planting time! Thanks to a grant from Giant Foods, we were able to secure seed trays, dirt, plant labels, four new raised bed kits, an electronic thermometer and some more spray bottles for little hands to use when gently watering.

The items were unloaded the same day the fifth and sixth graders on the Green Team hosted their Trashion Show event, raising awareness about resource management and re-usability while also having a lot of fun. More than thirty students, families or staff participated and it gave Fairview supporters another chance to see the greenhouse all set up. Hopefully, those who took home the pass along Lamb's Ear plants have found them a happy home in a pot or spot of ground. They are easy care plants that will spread and fill in quickly if established before the heat of summer.

Our Girl Scout visionary and sponsor Abby Tisler and her family built and installed six planting tables which are now in use for growing spinach (pictured above) and swiss chard, while classes finalize their choices for "parts of a plant" seed to harvest projects.

Currently the following teachers have reported the following decisions:

LEAVES
Mrs. Geary's class: kale
Mrs. Pearson's class: spinach
Mrs. Hayes' class: lettuce
Ms. Feingold's class: herbs
Kaplan/Wojcik/Smith/Pearson/McCarron classes: mega cabbage

FRUIT
Ms. Gilchrist's class: tomatos
Mrs. Barrett's class: cucumbers

SEEDS
Ms. Roos's class: baby corn

We still need some classes to sign up for flowers (brocolli, nasturtiums, squash blossoms) or the roots (beets, turnips) and the stems (leeks, scallions) so encourage your students and teachers to jump on board as we prepare and work now towards an awesome, educational and delicious harvest party in June!

Thanks to Bonnie Plants donating nearly 150 cabbage seedlings, the entire third grade had the option to bring a cabbage plant home a few weeks ago. In addition to their efforts at home to nurture and grow a mega cabbage, the garden at school will include a dozen or so cabbage plants for the third graders to tend there.

Special thanks to fall and winter garden and greenhouse volunteers for laying the gravel base in the greenhouse, painting and placing pavers in the garden, clearing beds in preparation for vegetable seedlings, edging the Johnny Appleseed tree with the historic Williamsburg bricks and much more.

A special thank you to the Fairview family who wishes to remain anonymous but generously gifted the school with a shiny new, heavy duty wheelbarrow and a $200 home depot gift card! This support is invaluable to the outdoor learning mission and abilities.

Also, we so appreciate the third grade girls of Girl Scout Troop 1791 who built and painted eight birdhouses for the garden space at their March meeting. Future projects needing volunteers and support include a building a squash trellis, repainting picnic tables and building the raised beds from kits.

The next volunteer work session for outdoor learning is (third Friday monthly) April 21 from 9:40-10:20 a.m. or so. Check in at the office and meet in the Learning Garden, directly behind the kindergarten classrooms. Updates in case of inclement weather are posted on the PTA Facebook site.

Any questions? Concerns? Ideas?
Contact PTA Learning Garden Committee Co-Chairs, Maggie Hall and Tricia Guiterman at learninggardens@fairviewpta.org.

5th and 6th Grade Green Team Students Represent at GMU

Eight representatives from Fairview's 5th and 6th grade Green Team attended the School Environmental Action Showcase at George Mason University on April 6th. The students talked to attendees about Fairview's eco activities, and got a chance to see what other schools across Northern Virginia are doing.  They really enjoyed the hands-on activities put on by local organizations such as the Park Authority and the Soil and Water Conservation District.






Our Fairview Green Team representatives in front of our display.



Lily Whitesell of the NoVa Soil and Water Conservation District talks to the kids about runoff and water quality. 



Playing the runoff game.



Getting to touch a rescued great horned owl.



Worm composting demonstration.



Tammy Schwab from the Fairfax County Park Authority leads our students in an activity.



Hands-on water quality demonstration.

The Tulips are Up!

Led by our PTA garden gurus, Maggie Hall and Kristin Townsend, Green Team students planted red emperor tulips last October around two trees just outside our front entrance.  Here they are in mid-February, just poking through the mulch.

The tulips are part of an international science project called Journey North.  When the tulips emerge in the spring, the date is recorded on Journey North's website. 

 

 Students can then track the arrival of spring across the Northern Hemisphere, and compare different location's emergence dates from year to year.

 

 

 

2nd Grade Raises and Releases Monarchs

We found enough Monarch caterpillars munching on our milkweed plants around the school grounds this fall that all four second grade classes were able to bring some caterpillars into their classrooms. The students had the chance to observe the Monarch lifecycle up close and then release the adult butterflies in the Learning Gardens.

 

Monarch caterpillars are very picky eaters! They will only eat the leaves of milkweed plants. Luckily we have common milkweed, swamp milkweed and butterflyweed growing in the Learning Gardens. When the caterpillar hangs upside down in a "J" shape, you know it's getting ready for it's big transformation.

The chrysalis is green with gold spots. The caterpillar will spend 10-14 days like this, seemingly inactive, but there is a lot going on in there!

The adult Monarch emerges with it's wings wet and wrinkled. It must unfold them and let them dry out before it can fly.

Some of the butterflies were ready to go, but the weather was not cooperating. If the temperature is below 60 degrees, Monarchs are not able to fly. Since it was cold and raining after a few of the butterflies emerged (technically it's called eclosing), we supplied them with some nectar plants from the gardens, and the kids got to watch them a little longer.

 

Mrs. Pearson's class released their Monarchs in the Learning Gardens on a sunny afternoon. We hope they make it to Mexico!

 

 

Green Team Plants Monarch Waystation

Green Team members ready to plant on a rainy spring day.

 

Green Team students met one rainy afternoon to plant milkweed and nectar plants in the Learning Gardens.  The new Monarch Waystation will support the monarch butterflies that migrate through our area every spring and fall on their way to and from Mexico. Monarch caterpillars will munch on the three types of milkweed we planted, and the adult butterflies will drink the nectar from the goldenrod, asters, brown-eyed susans, and other flowering plants. To find out more about the amazing monarch migration, and how you can plant a monarch waystation in your own yard, visit http://monarchwatch.org/waystations/.

Using our own compost made from cafeteria scraps!



Dirty hands = good work!

Fourth Grade in the Forest

 

 

Fourth grade classes were the first to put the new trail through the woods to good use as part of their unit on Virginia ecosystems. Each group got up close and personal with their small piece of the forest floor, sketching and labelling living and nonliving things they found in their plots. They plan to come back and do soil tests with the plots later in the year. The trail has been a work in progress since last year, and it's almost finished! We have an outdoor classroom, signs marking plants and trees native to Virginia, and a nice long cleared path all the way through the woods. One loop still needs some clearing, and we have a local boy scout working on bridges and mulching for the trail as part of his Eagle Scout project.  Many, many thanks to the PTA Eco Committee, volunteers from the Kohls department store across from Fairview,  parent, ecologist and cub scout leader Mary Benger, and boy scouts from troop 1346 and their families for helping create this awesome learning opportunity right in our backyard!




Fourth graders observing and recording.





The woods next to school, before!

Mulch by the truckload.

Fourth grade studying Virginia ecosystems.

We found all KINDS of interesting things clearing the trail.



It's ready, come on outside!