Outdoor Classrooms

Fall maintenance

Posted by katherine Dees_Payne at 10/23/2009 4:00:00 PM

This fall fourth graders have been good stewards

in the schoolyard by picking up trash on a weekly

basis. Mrs. Bova, Mrs. Lee and Mr. O'Malley have

been working very hard removing the jungle of weeds.

Students helped Mr. O'Malley stake cotton. We like

pulling up wild weeds to get our beds ready for the

winter!

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Summer Transformation

Posted by Mary McLean at 9/19/2009 8:00:00 PM

Trumpet Vine took over our Hummingbird Reading Garden.

Asst. Principal Colin Brown called in the APS
maintenance crew.
Even a native can get out of control.

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Summer 2009 in the Colonial Gardens

Posted by Mary McLean at 9/1/2009 12:00:00 PM

Three Sisters'/Brothers' Garden, located along the gym wall faces the 5th Gr. Trailers.

In June Craig Hendry built new beds for this garden as part of his Eagle Project.

You can see the squash spredding into the new beds.

This is the sunniest, most productive garden at Tuckahoe.

"High as an elephant's eye"? This corn is "in tassle",

which means that the corn is ready for pollination.

You can feel if the kernals have formed (if pollination

has occurred) through the husk.

Look what is climbing up the corn stalk- BEANS!

The corn stalk provides support for "pole" beans in

a very sisterly/brotherly fashion.

Here you can see the corn's tassles. If you look

carefully you'll see the bean plant. Below it is the

squash, the third "sibling". It provides the shade to

keep the roots of its brothers/sisters from drying out!

Just around the corner is our beautiful mural of the

Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia - or is it the Shenandoah?

Below the painting is a garden of wildflowers!

Following around the building in our raised field-

stone beds you'll see pototaoes flowering along with

wild chrysanthmums. The Fourth Graders of the

"Farming Group" planted these last April in their

"Kitchen Garden".

Here is the squirrels' favorite place in the Colonial

Village, the hickory tree. See all the bright green husks?

This is the native trumpet vine before the custodians

trimmed it up. Even a native can take over if it is in

the right spot! There are herbs and purple hyacinth

hiding underneath.

This is what cotton leaves look like.

Just across the path from the cotton is the flax.

The colonist brought it with them from Europe.

Aren't the blue flowers beautiful? You can buy them

from the garden store but making linen from flax is a

very involved process.

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Eagle Scout Project

Posted by Mary McLean at 6/13/2009 10:00:00 PM

Douglas Hendry builds addition to
Three Sisters'/Brothers' Garden for his
Eagle Scout project
Here are the scouts from Troop 638 who built the beds.
Joe Atmore, Doug Hendry, Eddy Falkner, Theo Van Dyke, and Jethro Torczon
The scouts dug terraces into the hillsides then
laid down the boards of the raised beds.
The site is at the back of the gym across from the
5th Grades' Outback. It is south facing and the best place
at Tuckahoe to plant.
Here is Doug's dad, Jim Hendry leveling up the bed.

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Expeditions in the Colonial Garden

Posted by Mary McLean at 4/3/2009 3:00:00 PM

We take care of our Colonial Village year round.

Expeditions in the Colonial Village get it ready for the winter.

We picked the last of the cotton with Ms Lindeman.

Kathy Payne's Spring Expedition just planted native plants

in the Colonial Village from Nature By Design, Christmas fern

and Creeping Flox. Kate Van Slyke, Schoolyard Assistant

from last year, came back to lend a hand.

Here is the spot where they planted. It is too shady

under the hickory tree for "Three Sisters'" corn, beans

and squash.

Here are the students raking the area smooth for the

native plants. We planted spiderwort and snakeroot

that Alonso Abugattas of Long Branch Nature Center

gave us. We'll get some more native plants at their

plant sale April 25th!

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Winter in the Colonial Village

Posted by Mary McLean at 3/4/2009 12:00:00 PM

All the garden is asleep.

The cabin and "school" will come alive at the

Colonial Fair June 5.

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Summer in the Garden

Posted by Mary McLean at 7/28/2008 10:00:00 AM

Summer in the Colonial Garden

Three sister's corn is high and "in tassle". That means the corn is ready to pick and eat!

You'll see the squash, the second "sister in the picture, shading the roots of the corn plant in the picture above.
Below is the third "sister", the bean plant, using the corn stalk as support to grow.

Next is our cotton, blooming! Check back in when school starts to see if it is in "square" which means it is about to pop the fluffy cotton ball!

Last is one of my favorite views in the Colonial Village: the mural of the Blue Ridge/Shenandoah Mts. with wildflowers in front.

A special thank you goes to our summer gardeners who take care of our schoolyard.
See you in September!

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Colonial Fair 2008

Posted by Mary McLean at 6/8/2008 5:00:00 PM

Colonial Fair at Tuckahoe, June 6, 2008

Welcome to the Colonial Fair!
We recreate 1778 Virginia in our Colonial Village for families and fellow Tuckahoe students.
Here are our musicians in the Greek Pavilion performing for family and friends.

Mr. Bowman, our instrumental teacher, got us ready. We played "Yankee Doodle" of course!

Inside we dance the Virginia Reel and minuet taught us by Ms Du Bois, our music teacher.
We danced with our parents too.

Beside the pavilion were the Colonial games.

Sometimes colonial games were not so different from ours- like this version of checkers.

"Hoops and graces" is a little like lacross and yet different.

Jacob's Ladder is still fascinating. That is Ms Lindeman looking on.

Our group was "Colonial Pastimes":

We enjoyed pretending to be at a "colonial school".

In the cabin we acted out a scene from The Sign of the Beaver.

As well as planting and taking care of our Colonial garden we learned about the herbs Colonists used for healing.

The woodworking group not only explained how to use their tools they actually built our split rail fence.

Behind them is the fiber group that planted cotton and flax. They explained how to make cloth from each. You could even try "spinning" some of our cotton by hand once you pulled out the seeds! Mrs. McLean, our "spinner" (and Outdoor Learning Coordinator) showed us how.

Our neighbor and former Tuckahoe parent Ms Bodner helped the quilting group made a real quilt!

We also had a Powhattan Garden group that planted corn, beans and squash. Native Americans shared these with the settlers. The group also acted out the "Legend of the Three Sisters" to explain how Indians got the plants and how the plants depended upon one another.

Special thanks goes to our teachers, Ms Payne, Ms Cusano, Ms Lindeman and Ms Cusano as well as the parents who helped us prepare our presentations, plant and care for our gardens and learn our "crafts". Thanks also goes to our schoolyard assistant, Kate Van Slyck, for helping us get the Colonial Village ready for the fair.

These photos were taken by our Yorktown Intern. Here she is helping get the cotton bed ready.

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Colonial Groups

Posted by Mary McLean at 5/23/2008 3:00:00 PM

Our Colonial Groups work in the Colonial Village to prepare for our Colonial Fair.
Here we mulch our three sisters garden of corn, beans and squash for the Powhattan Group. We'll tell the story on Colonial Day of how the three plants help each other.

Here you can see the rows of corn.

The woodworking group builds a fence along the path.

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