OUR GARDEN NEWS!
Check out this Good Morning Utah interview at Backman Elementary, where students have been participating in the Tulips Marching North project. Teacher Paula Marquez even highlights this website!
Escalante Elementary School was recently featured on the University of Utah's KUER radio station at 90.1. Listen to the full story on their website.
National Garden News
Field Report: A Michigan Teen Farms Her Backyard (New York Times)
The Obama's Vegetable Garden (New York Times)
People's Garden on the National Mall (New York Times)
BOOK OF THE MONTH
The Old Farmer's Almanac for Kids
Grades 3-8
Based on the original Old Farmer's Almanac, this fun book is full of useful information that will satisfy your students' curiosity while also keeping them busy with a variety of fun activities. This book covers subjects such as astronomy, weather, history, the environment, and much more, and uses this information to form activities that will keep children actively engaged in the learning process.
In addition to the book, the Old Farmer's Almanac for Kids has a website full of fun facts and interactive games that can help keep kids busy during the summer. Check it out!
Sunflower House
Grades K-3
In this story, a little boy plants sunflower seeds in a big circle, caring for them and watching them grow into a huge, flowering "house." Rhymed couplets written in first person express the boy's determination, surprise, and delight as he weaves his own play into the sunflowers' cycle from seed to seed.
This book's beautiful depiction of a sunflower's lifecycle and the imaginative world of the sunflower house will educate and inspire children, who may even want to plant a sunflower house of their own.
What do you think? The Garden Network wants to know! Post your comments/questions today!
GROWING KIDS STORIES
Have you ever failed miserably when trying to grow plants in your classroom? There never seems to be the right amount of light to really get things going. Seeds sprout, but that is as far as the plant is able to go. There is a simple solution, one which my class found very successful and rewarding! The SpaceLite (Plant Light) Kit made growing plants in our classroom delightful! We filled the pots with soil, planted the seeds, connected the timer and light cord, and waited. It wasn't long and green shoots were spied, documented, and celebrated! Within weeks, we were watching peas and tomatoes form on lush vines. 
Each student in my first grade classroom devoured peas, not only from our classroom vines, but in the lunchroom as well! On the last day of school, our class of 24 shared the four ripe, micro-tina tomatoes! It was unanimous! They were the best tomatoes ever eaten!
I can hardly wait for next year when we will expand our seed selection and start our gardening even earlier! Space permitting, we will be growing plants and young minds all year long!
