Youth Gardeners
April 2023
GARDEN BEES – by Paula Hartman
Our April meeting with the BEES was very exciting. We introduced “Butterflies”- with their life cycle. We spoke about the importance of butterflies in today’s world. Then, the BEES sat quietly as we transferred the larvae to the habitat. The caterpillars were quite active as Ms Frances had been watching them for the past week. We hope that the butterflies will emerge within 2 weeks. The teacher assured us that she will call us. We bought 2 cups of larvae with 6 caterpillars in each cup (buy one, get one…ha ha) So we are anxiously awaiting the call! We also brought a spider plant and had the BEES clip a baby which they promptly placed in a OUI jar(recycled) and placed on windowsill with water. This was the horticulture lesson for the day. They will watch for roots to emerge and we will bring flower pots and soil for them to plant for Mother’s Day . Then, Ms Kathy distributed materials to make Mother’s Day cards. That cricket is amazing! (ask Kathy)
So, all in all, we had a very bzzzy day. Also, We will be accompanying the BEES and the rest of the second graders to Cool Springs on May 12—it’s going to be so very fun and informative for us all.
Watch for updates about the butterflies!
February 2023 Youth Gardeners
Trent Woods Garden Club volunteers visited with Oaks Rod Academy second graders on Valentine’s Day. The day started with reviewing last month’s lessons and the kids had checked off the bird visitors they observed at home at their own feeders. They taught the children how to make floral designs using oasis (new Word!!), greens, and mini carnations which they placed in recycled punch bowl cups. The results were beautiful. The BEES gave an arrangement to both their teacher and the principal! They also created Valentine cards and each one was unique! They even had time to check out the gardens, pull the radishes and disperse wildflower seeds (which were from NCDOT). Unfortunately, the daffodil bulbs they planted in November have not bloomed yet—next month hopefully! All in all, our visit was very bzzzzy…can you imagine that we do this all within an hour and 15 minutes!
Another bzzzzy meeting with the Garden BEES of Oaks Road Academy. We were pleased to welcome a new member to our team: Karen Powers. We now have 6 TWGC members (Frances Eder, Kathy Perretta, Carole Letellier, Ann G. Hall, Karen Powers, and Eileen Griswold) who work together to bring fun and education to these second graders.
Our theme was “BIRDS”. We talked about cardinals and bluebirds and how one can differentiate male from female. We introduced new vocabulary such as camouflage, habitat, parts of the bird, etc. We had 4 activities running at the same time: making feeders with pinecones, lard and birdseed, writing poems and essays about birds (using new vocabulary from a word search), drawing their favorite bird and pulling radishes in the garden. Now perhaps you may think that this is rather ambitious to accomplish with 22 little ones in an hour or so…well, we did it and the children were great! They even had time to hang some of the feeders in a tree outside their classroom. For homework, after bundling their very messy creations in waxed baggies, they will watch which birds come to their feeders at home and check off on the Bird Log Poster (designed by Ann) every day for the month. (This should be a very interesting tally).
So, as usual, it was all fun, BUT WAIT…one more activity was the arrival of Gail Krielow, former TWGC President, who loves to knit, who presented each child with a hat, scarf and mittens in various colors and designs. What a special gift for these children. So, after our activities they put on their gifts for the group picture. Thank you again, Ms Gail, for bringing such joy to the BEES.
Next meeting is on Feb. 14 and we’ll have some special activities for all!
By Paula Hartman
Our meeting in December was very bzzzy as usual. We were elated to see how well the gardens are producing. The radishes were ready to pull and the collards should be full by January meeting. However, the onions are taking more time, but should be up in early spring. Today we introduced succulents and how to grow them. The BEES learned why cacti were succulents and how they are grown. We spoke about deserts and thorns and all facts about these easy to grow plants. Even more so, the excitement grew as each of the children received a succulent to take home. Next the BEES made ornaments out of recycled Christmas cards cut into circles and attached to felt pieces in a small embroidery hoop. The white felt is made from recycles plastic bottles! The ornaments were really cute but hard to describe!! We also reminded the BEES of the National Forest Service Poster contest where they are to create posters to promote Woodsy Owl’s mantra: “Give a Hoot, Don’t Pollute” and “Lend a Hand, Care for the Land.”
So, all in all, we had a very productive meeting. Thank you to all our TWGC members (Carol Letellier, Kathy Perretta, Frances Eder, Ann Hall and Eileen Griswolde) who make our visits to Oaks Road Academy so special. We visit again on January 18 if any of you are inspired to join us. Happy New Year.
TWGC met with our second graders at Oaks Road Academy. After a lesson about trees and bulbs, the group planted a tree in honor of Arbor Day and spring bulbs. The students also wrote thank you notes to Mr Roger at Tractor Supply for providing the red maple tree.
The BEES are shown here learning about the crops of Craven County from Kathy Perretta. They were able to touch and smell all the samples provided by the Craven Extension office. Here the BEES are planting their cuttings from last month’s meeting. TWGC volunteers Carole Letellier and Ann G. Hall are helping.
September 2022
The first meeting of the Garden BEES in almost two years, was held on Friday, Sept. 16 at Oaks Road Academy. We met with Ms .Wilson and her 21 students. We introduced our objectives of sharing gardening with the BEES and then introduced our lesson of reuse, recycle and reduce. This led to presenting Woodsy Owl, our special friend, who promotes “Give a Hoot, Don’t Pollute” and above all to “Lend a Hand, Care for the Land.” The BEES were good listeners and active participants in our lesson.
Our activity of the day was how to grow plants from cuttings. Each student chose a cutting (from philodendron, Swedish ivy or silver inch) and placed it in a recycled OUI jar. The children’s challenge for the month is to watch the roots grow and keep the water clean. Hopefully, next month the roots will be strong enough for them to plant them in soil. We presented the teacher with a philodendron plant (mother of cuttings) to show what a full size plant looks like. And as always, keeping with the season, we brought her a vase of sunflowers and umbrella stems.
All in all, we had a bzzzy fun time with the Garden BEES and hope next month we will be planting seeds outside in our garden plots.
Stay tuned for the results of our project—Ms. Paula, Ms Ann and Ms Kathy…and call us if you’d like to join us.
The first meeting of the Garden BEES in almost two years, was held on Friday, Sept. 16 at Oaks Road Academy. We met with Ms .Wilson and her 21 students. We introduced our objectives of sharing gardening with the BEES and then introduced our lesson of reuse, recycle and reduce. This led to presenting Woodsy Owl, our special friend, who promotes “Give a Hoot, Don’t Pollute” and above all to “Lend a Hand, Care for the Land.” The BEES were good listeners and active participants in our lesson.
Our activity of the day was how to grow plants from cuttings. Each student chose a cutting (from philodendron, Swedish ivy or silver inch) and placed it in a recycled OUI jar. The children’s challenge for the month is to watch the roots grow and keep the water clean. Hopefully, next month the roots will be strong enough for them to plant them in soil. We presented the teacher with a philodendron plant (mother of cuttings) to show what a full size plant looks like. And as always, keeping with the season, we brought her a vase of sunflowers and umbrella stems.
All in all, we had a bzzzy fun time with the Garden BEES and hope next month we will be planting seeds outside in our garden plots.
Stay tuned for the results of our project—Ms. Paula, Ms Ann and Ms Kathy…and call us if you’d like to join us.
Youth Gardeners
The first meeting of the Garden BEES in almost two years, was held on Friday, Sept. 16 at Oaks Road Academy. We met with Ms .Wilson and her 21 students. We introduced our objectives of sharing gardening with the BEES and then introduced our lesson of reuse, recycle and reduce. This led to presenting Woodsy Owl, our special friend, who promotes “Give a Hoot, Don’t Pollute” and above all to “Lend a Hand, Care for the Land.” The BEES were good listeners and active participants in our lesson.
Our activity of the day was how to grow plants from cuttings. Each student chose a cutting (from philodendron, Swedish ivy or silver inch) and placed it in a recycled OUI jar. The children’s challenge for the month is to watch the roots grow and keep the water clean. Hopefully, next month the roots will be strong enough for them to plant them in soil. We presented the teacher with a philodendron plant (mother of cuttings) to show what a full size plant looks like. And as always, keeping with the season, we brought her a vase of sunflowers and umbrella stems.
All in all, we had a bzzzy fun time with the Garden BEES and hope next month we will be planting seeds outside in our garden plots.
Stay tuned for the results of our project—Ms. Paula, Ms Ann and Ms Kathy…and call us if you’d like to join us.
The first meeting of the Garden BEES in almost two years, was held on Friday, Sept. 16 at Oaks Road Academy. We met with Ms .Wilson and her 21 students. We introduced our objectives of sharing gardening with the BEES and then introduced our lesson of reuse, recycle and reduce. This led to presenting Woodsy Owl, our special friend, who promotes “Give a Hoot, Don’t Pollute” and above all to “Lend a Hand, Care for the Land.” The BEES were good listeners and active participants in our lesson.
Our activity of the day was how to grow plants from cuttings. Each student chose a cutting (from philodendron, Swedish ivy or silver inch) and placed it in a recycled OUI jar. The children’s challenge for the month is to watch the roots grow and keep the water clean. Hopefully, next month the roots will be strong enough for them to plant them in soil. We presented the teacher with a philodendron plant (mother of cuttings) to show what a full size plant looks like. And as always, keeping with the season, we brought her a vase of sunflowers and umbrella stems.
All in all, we had a bzzzy fun time with the Garden BEES and hope next month we will be planting seeds outside in our garden plots.
Stay tuned for the results of our project—Ms. Paula, Ms Ann and Ms Kathy…and call us if you’d like to join us.
We did visit the BEES- just before they closed the school! Dave Gover, Lori Gover’s husband, is a beekeeper and gave a presentation about bees to the entire second grade class in the library. After his program, we went back to our classroom of Garden BEES, reviewed his lesson and then we had the students make butterfly favors for our cancelled convention. The BEES were very creative and enjoyed the activity. We will keep them until the meeting is held (probably at end of August). We also checked out our garden and the peach tree we put in for Arbor Day. All of which are doing well. We may not be able to meet with the BEEs again this school year. We just hope that everyone is staying safe and maybe getting a lot of gardening done.
Our February meeting fell the day before Valentine’s Day, so we had a very special agenda for our Garden BEES! First, we reviewed last month’s lessons. Ms. Ann created a unique Bird log, “the Birds I See” with pictures of birds found in North Carolina. We asked the students which ones they saw on or near their bird feeders. Their answers were quite interesting. Happily they did remember the state bird and the differences between male and female cardinals and the different size and shapes of bluebirds. Ms. Sylvia brought individual baggies of supplies so each BEE could make a Valentine card. And what would Valentine’s Day be without flowers? After a brief Floral Design 1-2-3, the children made beautiful arrangements. First, they placed greens from our yards into the chopped-up oasis in recycled mugs and then they finished by adding beautiful flowers. Each design was special, and we know their parents appreciated these gifts. The kids also had the horticulture corner where Ms. Mary and Ms. Eileen reviewed how to plant seeds and the BEES planted snap peas. We also were pleased to see the daffodils which we planted in November were blooming. So, all in all, we had a very bzzzy and productive meeting of the Garden BEES.
Here are some photos of our recent visit on January 15, 2020 to our second-grade class of Oaks Road Academy. We presented a lesson about birds specifically why they are important in our world and how to identify different birds by color, shape and size. The northern cardinal was emphasized as it is the state bird. The cardinal is the state bird of 8 other states. We taught that all birds need help in the winter to survive and so we had the BEES make birdfeeders from pinecones gathered from local forest areas, cemeteries and back yards. Lard was slathered onto the cone and then the cone was rolled in bird seed. The BEES really enjoyed this project as noted in these photos. We hung 4 feeders on a tree in the playground area so all the students could watch for visitors. Our students were given the assignment to keep a log as to which birds and how many came to their feeders.
Paula Hartman, Lori Gover. Carol Letellier and Eileen Griswold
What a bzzzy December meeting we enjoyed with the Garden BEES at Oaks Road Academy on Dec. 8. We used an onion to demonstrate how bulbs grow from the inside out and then proceeded to plant daffodils in their garden. The paper whites which we gave the teacher last month suffered from too much water, so we reinforced the lesson not to overwater plants. A surprise visitor accompanied us this month with gifts for all the children. Ms. Gail Krielow, Past President of TWGC, spent the fall knitting a hat, mittens and a scarf for each of the BEES. How excited and thankful the children were. There was an array of colors throughout the classroom. While groups were outside planting bulbs, we reinforced our lessons from last month- ie Arbor Day and recycling by distributing Word searches and work sheets.
We also mentioned again the National Forest Service Poster contest about Woodsy Owl and hope the students will practice designing and coloring an entry by mid-January. Remember, “Lend a Hand, care for the Land’ is Woodsy’s motto.
Then we all came together to hear the legend of the poinsettia, a traditional Christmas plant. In addition, instructions on the care of the poinsettia were reiterated as we surprised all the BEES with their very own plant! Thanks to Lowe’s who donated them. So we hope that the plants and the knitted attire arrived home safe and sound. In January, the focus of our visit will be birds of North Carolina. Stay tuned to what we have planned. If interested in joining us to work with these second graders, please contact Carol or Paula.
The children will plant the seeds in the spring.
October 2019 Youth Gardener Meeting
We had a slow start this year as we had a new teacher and classroom to establish before we met the children. We finally went to Oaks Road Academy on Friday, Oct. 4. What a great group of 25 eager second graders! But did you know there is preparation work to be done before this initial visit? First, we needed to get the fall garden established by picking up and amending the gardens with 1600 pounds of compost from our local landfill in Tuscarora. At our first meeting, we introduced seeds and how they grow. The BEES planted radish and spinach seeds, in addition to broccoli, collards and lettuce plants. In the wildflower area, they sprinkled seeds from NCDOT plus some poppy seeds. The BEES are expected to maintain the gardens until we return next month.
Environment and habitat were the words of the day. So, we introduced our mascot, Woodsy Owl, combining his motto of “Lend A Hand, Care for the Land” with the need to recycle and reuse to help the world around us. For a craft activity, the BEES made Woodsy puppets which they seemed to really enjoy (as witnessed by the photos). Our visit was very bzzzy as always and if you would like to join us, we return on Nov. 1. We will be introducing Arbor Day by planting a tree plus making decorations for the hospital tree. We’ll also squeeze in a lesson about bulbs and plant daffodils. Call Carol Letellier or Paula Hartman if interested! Happy Fall! The Garden Ladies: Frances Eder, Eileen Griswold, Lori Gover, Ann Hall, Sylvia Cotton, and Kathy Perretta.
TWGC reaches out every month with a visit to our second grade “Bees” at Oak Road Academy. Teaching the children about plants, trees, vegetables, nature and the environment. TWGC members help the children with ongoing projects such as: planting a vegetable garden and later enjoying the fruits of their labors, planting a tree for Arbor Day, learning about the National Forestry Service and their mascot Smokey the Bear, to craft projects the kids get to take home. A lovely healthy snack is provided and everyone thoroughly enjoys their time together!
Trent Woods Garden Club 