Summer Camp: Farming & Gardening

These are simply my initial brainstorming notes as I went along. Click the following links to download the lesson plans, compatible plants cards, and unit overview with complete booklist.

Farming, Gardening, Housebuilding by Roy Wilkinson
Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots: Gardening Together with Children by Sharon Lovejoy

animals - chickens, rabbits
can you have both share a space?
rabbit pellets can be used immediately as fertilizer, chickens eat insects out of the garden, gather eggs - 4-H build chicken coop, rabbits can be in enclosed garden - where to get rabbits?

plant pumpkins for harvest later in school year - existing pumpkin patch at edge of field?
worm bin

wool of course, sheep shearing - Tidewater lamb will be kept someplace else during the summer and comes back in the fall
loom.... Farmer Boy - build out of pipe? Kids Weaving - this might be too much for a week long camp
gardening goes on throughout the summer
attract bees, toad houses, etc. beneficial insects. ladybug nymphs?

ten total days

And the Good Brown Earth - leaf print art
The Drop in My Drink - water cycle - water art? ice cubes melting?

weaving sticks/vines to make a fence?

another one to buy - The Gourmet Paper Maker by Ellaraine Lockie (used and new from $2.25)

painting tiles from Paint 'n' Pottery to mark flower beds, compatible plants - Roses Love Garlic, Carrots Love Tomatoes
graphing, grids to plan crops

we have got to get some kind of grain planted -- corn? millet?
a look at several grains with daily cooking projects, story of lost ear of corn from Tonya Lemos' book, needle felting ear of corn craft kit

plant lavender to make sachets?

tipi - bamboo poles, plant vines up it - morning glory - Sharon Lovejoy's book - moon garden?

irrigation - Where the River Begins
gravity - The Slant Book - Roman aqueducts - pumps

I am finding so much poetry to go with this block it is ridiculous
oh, Whose Garden Is It?

the potato is not a root vegetable - http://www.chefdecuisine.com/vegetables/potato/potatomain.asp

The Moon Mouse - biodynamics

TO-DO

find some rabbits - Amish farmer's market
buy Donna Simmons' Botany block - yes

500 red wiggler worms for $25.95, free shipping

WEEK ONE
Farming, Gardening, Housebuilding by Roy Wilkinson
Drawing from the Book of Nature by Dennis Klocek

Day 1
AM - earth, And the Good Brown Earth, artwork - leaf prints
PM - soil tests, The Hand-Sculpted House: A Philosophical and Practical Guide to Building a Cob Cottage, topographical map? find north, south, east, west - compass

Day 2
AM - water, The Drop in My Drink
PM - rainbow - prisms (sunlight), A Rainbow of My Own, watercolors, painting the rainbow from Rauld Russell's book

Day 3
AM - parts of a plant, Seed Leaf Flower Fruit, snack on different parts of the plant
PM - pencil sketches, Drawing from the Book of Nature

Day 4
AM - SEX! plant reproduction, honeybees, candlemaking project
PM - Plants that Never Ever Bloom by Ruth Heller, fern prints, collaborative project - room divider screen? or tablecloth, napkins?

Day 5
AM - beneficial insects, ladybug larvae - Are You a Ladybug?
PM - life cycle of an insect - add butterfly house to schoolyard

WEEK TWO
Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots: Gardening Together with Children by Sharon Lovejoy
Spring: Nature Activities for Children

Day 6
AM - life cycle of plants - look at decaying pumpkins in field, compost, A Log's Life, In a Nutshell, tissue paper transparency tree?
PM - examine soil, pH testing (Roots, Shoots, Buckets and Boots)

Day 7
AM - compatible plants, Carrots Love Tomatoes: Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening and Roses Love Garlic: Companion Planting and Other Secrets of Flowers
PM - graph paper, plan garden, have children decide plants, how much space will they take up, measurement

Day 8
AM - seed tapes, drama -- seeds waking up and coming out of the earth, yoga?
PM - fertilizer - kelp meal, worm castings, bring in worm bin, A Worm's Tale, presentation notes, rabbits

Day 9
AM - keeping the bugs away - bat house, chickens, toad house, everything has a predator, how do some plants defend themselves?
PM - irrigation, other problems farmers face, pests - deer, building a wall around the garden

Day 10
AM - from grain to bread - grind wheat to make flour, bake bread (save this for next block) - instead do medicinal uses for herbs, herbal salves, notes from Summer Book, also An Herbal Summer by Tonya Lemos, spiral herb garden is beautiful! pick and dry herbs - take home little pots of herbs for at home garden?
PM - windchime project - sundial? - work with shadows and telling time throughout unit - The Shadow Book