Last week the third graders finished painting their tree stumps! We will seal them and find a permanent home for them in the school garden as part of our final celebration next week.
This week, students learned about the three components of soil and their properties: sand (drainage), silt (fertility), and clay (absorption). In small groups, they looked at samples of soil mixed with water in a jar from around the schoolyard (e.g. the chicken coop, an edible garden bed, the dig zone, the amphitheater) and tried to figure out what type of soil it was, using the thickness of each layer of sand, silt, and clay as a guide. Soil that is approximately 40% sand, 40% silt, and 20% clay is called loam and is ideal for growing food. At the end of class, students added compost to their jars and will come back next week to see if this amendment helped improve their soil sample.
