The Great Pumpkin Contest, year 3!

For the third year in a row we grew pumpkins in the learning garden and sponsored the Roly-Poly pumpkin contest. Classes were encouraged to visit the garden and estimate the weight and seed count for Roly and Poly.

Teachers used math, science and writing lessons to determine their class estimate.

This year Roly weighed 16.6 pounds and had a record 948 seeds! Poly was our smaller pumpkin
at 8.6 pounds with 303 seeds. See the pictures below for more information on classroom activities
and winning estimates.

Pumpkin books on display in the library

Mrs. Bacon's class estimated 8.5 pounds for Poly

Mrs. Walsh's class estimated 16.5 pounds for Roly

Classroom Estimates on Display

Counting Roly's seeds  with Mrs. Bacon

Pumpkin Seed Recipe

Mr. Olins class counted seeds by 10s and 100s

Counting pumpkin seeds in Mr. Olins class was a big job!

Mrs. Meserves' class estimated 303 seeds for Poly

Mrs. Tierney's class estimated 720 seeds for Roly.

Finding Roly and Poly

We love pumpkins!

Fabulous Fall school garden

It has been a beautiful fall in Maine this year.  Many teachers and students have taken advantage of this amazing weather by spending time outside in the learning garden, the hoop house site and the high school orchard. The pictures below show some of these fabulous fall school garden events.

1st graders apple picking

Making apple salsa!

2nd graders picking flowers to decorate the cafeteria

K students exploring the garden for the first time

1st graders in the orchard with Farmer Deri

1st graders making curly potatoes

Testing and rating potato samples

1st graders picking potatoes at the hoop house site

Mrs. MacKinnon's students 

1st grade pizza garden

A rainbow of garden color

5th graders at the hoop house site

Panoramic view of the hoop house site.

Monarch wonder!

Spring Planting and Garden Events

It has been a beautiful and busy spring at Falmouth School Gardens. We sponsored a plant sale to benefit our garden program, planted flowers and vegetables in the learning garden and started construction on our hoop house. Elementary students have been involved in all of this. The pictures below tell some of this spring story.

5th Grade students sorting seeds

Seeds harvested and packed by students

The plant sale tent at the Wellness Day

Mrs. Farmer teaching about apples

5th grade buddies with K student

5th grade buddies helping a K student measure growth

The garden is so much fun for Mrs. Farmer's students

Cleaning up the garden doesn't have to be boring

Close inspection

K student measuring plant growth

Mrs. Langston teaching her class about wheat before starting seeds

1st graders planting in the pizza garden

2nd graders planting nasturtiums

Planting onions

Mrs. Clay with her flower friends

Genna,our garden manager,working with 4th graders

4th grade seed starts

Mrs. Voisine's class helping erect the hoop house

Farmer friends observing the hoop house erection

A different view of the hoop house

Hoop House is taking shape!

Mrs. Clay's class lifted the first hoop to start construction of the hoop house- what fun!