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Green sign sticking out of the soil that reads "National Wildlife Preservation Certified Wildlife Habitat" with flowers, small bushes and a birdbath around it

The sign says:

National Wildlife Federation

Certified Wildlife Habitat

This property is recognized for its commitment to sustainably provide essential elements of wildlife habitat: food, water, cover and places to raise young

Kudos to Ms. Alanna O’Donnell, Principal Barbara Tremblay and all of the students and staff that maintain the garden!

Chef George paid a visit to 35M @ Beacon last week to help the students prepare a delicious lunch of bean tacos with sauteed zucchini and salsa, and a bok choy salad with blueberry balsamic vinaigrette. Students prepped the zucchini, mixed and pressed the fajita dough from scratch, harvested the bok choy from Mr. Heath’s Tower Garden, and mixed it with salad greens and tomatoes. Yum!

Although our celebration was virtual again this year, check out all of the exciting things that the BBG and NYBG partnership classes have been doing! We had a live celebration on June 10 where students shared about their gardening projects and recent trips to their botanical gardens.

student holding up a plant and a seed pack of marigolds with 3 rows of plants on the windowsill behind her

Emily from 721K shows off the seed starting mix that her teacher sent her so that she can plant from home. The class has been doing a number of remote planting experiments with lemon and avocado seeds. As you can see, they have also been practicing recycling and sustainability while they are at home. Great job class Y51 and thank you Ms. O’Donnell!

 

 

Ms. Abir from 811Q shared a garden memory from last spring and we thought we would spread the sunshine and happiness in this photo. With a big thank you to Grow NYC, she writes: I hope you and your families are okay! This time last year we were very busy preparing for our grand opening on Earth day, however, no one could have ever predicted we will be home and doing remote learning this time of a year! I never got the chance to share this with you.Thank you for all the help and the support! We truly appreciate it! Thank YOU Ms. Abir and the 811Q garden committee for all of your hard work. We can’t wait to visit your garden again when it is safe to come back to school.

Mr. Masefield was alerted that something was amiss with the school chickens…. check out this youtube video to see what happened when he went to check on the coop this week.

Screen shot of rooster from youtube video

Here are some really awesome distance learning resources and ideas from our friends at GrowNYC.

Grow NYC logo

Dear PLG Community, We miss you! Since we’ve been learning from home, it seems that everything has been cancelled except for spring. If you’ve been outside for even a short walk, or if you’ve been inside watching from the window, you must be noticing the signs of spring that are all around. Some of us have been making photo journals, others are sketching and painting our observations, and others are becoming inspired by writing nature poetry. Whatever your method for connecting with nature, now is the time! Here are a few highlights from a recent nature walk- our favorite grape hyacinths, daffodils, some cool bud bursts, and a signs of spring photo journal in progress.

*If you do go outside to make some nature observations, please remember to stay safe by wearing a mask and keeping a safe distance between yourself and other people, but you can get as close to the plants as you like!

Have you ever seen a baby cucumber before? Or it’s colorful yellow flowers? Mr. Ira Wahrman’s class at 17X has been watching them grow in their classroom tower garden. Thanks for sharing!

No trip to the Bronx would be complete without a visit to the 754X Chicken Coop. Big thank you to farmer Michael Masefield for lending his expertise and his classroom to the new “crop” of D75 teachers getting involved in hydroponics and aquaponics this year. Teachers got to experience four different types of growing systems first-hand, created their own data collection sheets, and received lots of useful tips and tricks for getting started. It was a rainy day to remember!