Updates School Garden!

We want to update you on the happenings at our school garden!

Remember the tomatoes kids transplanted back in March? Well, we staked them yesterday because they are getting big!

Staked tomatoes

 Also our arbor was finished!! We want to thank Mr. Raymond for his wonderful work! As you can see in the pictures below our pumpkin and cantaloupe plants are growing fast.  They look healthy and absolutely beautiful!

Beautiful Arbor! 

A couple of weeks ago Kindergarteners planted radishes around the pumpkins and the cantaloupes to keep bad bugs away! Have you heard of companion planting? It's a really great method used in organic gardening. 

Kindergarteners watering radishes after planting  

This week our HEAL students thinned the radishes to make sure they grow healthy and strong! 

One of our HEAL student thinning the radishes 

We have also started to work in our butterfly garden. Flowers are blooming! 

We will keep you posted with more updates soon.

In the meantime we always welcome volunteers to help us carry out this work. If you know anyone interested send them our way! Click here for more information. 

HEAL students teach kindergarteners how to keep their organs healthy!

This school year we taught HEAL students not only to eat well, but how their bodies (and organs) are affected by what they eat and do!

In order to teach this in an effective, interactive way, we helped each student to create a life size model of their bodies (The kids loved it and were really engaged with this activity!) 

Over a series of classes the students learned about the major organs : heart, lungs, stomach, intestines, brain, liver! Did you know ?  The average adult heart beats 72 times a minute and 100,000 times a day! That's a lot of beating! 

One of the models is currently displayed in the school cafeteria for everyone to see and learn!

Also, our older HEAL students participated in the fun by giving presentations on organs to the kindergarteners.

Each one of the HEAL students had the opportunity to present on a particular organ's functions and threats. Following the presentation, HEAL students asked questions to the kindergarteners who were happy to participate!

This was a great interactive activity and the first time our HEAL students presented health topics in their school. Developing leadership skills and helping children gain the confidence to develop their own voice is one of Sankofa’s goals with the HEAL program! We will definitely hold more health presentations in the near future!

Fun Facts about Organs

·      Every day, kidneys filter the body’s total blood supply about 12 times per hour.
·      The small intestine is actually much longer than the large intestine.
·      By the age of eighteen your brain stops growing
·      The average adult heart beats 2.5 billion times during a lifetime.

http://facts.randomhistory.com/human-heart-facts.html

Plantings started at our school garden at ARISE Academy!

This week we had an exciting week with the HEAL students and we want to tell you all about it!

Finally the seeds that we started in the green house were ready to be transplanted into the ground.

Tomatoes, squashes and cucumbers ready to be transplanted

In order for kids to see (and eat!) more veggies we selected a variety of veggies to plant in the school garden some are: eggplant, yellow squash, golden peppers, swiss chard, spinach, okra, baby and strawberry tomatoes, pumpkins, cucumbers, cantaloupes and bush beans.

Ms Parker, Makahi and Michael planting cantaloupe transplants! 

Group of HEAL students transplanting yellow squash plants

Michael and Kazaiah transplanting eggplants 

Okra, swiss chard and bush beans were directly sowed in the ground! 

Bush beans ready to be planted

Planting bush beans 

The kids also learned about the space needed between plants. They used the planting guide developed by LSU Ag center. You can find it here.

We also starting to build an arbor! (see the poles in the picture below) If you have spent a summer in New Orleans you know you need some shade! We can’t wait to see those pumpkins and cantaloupes hanging from the arbor! Kids will love it!

Ms Parker, Kimona and Thomson transplating tomato plants