Students are Digging Deeper in Orchard's Centennial Sunflower Garden

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During Orchard's Earth Day community cleanup last year, Mrs. P and a handful of students, parents, alumni, faculty, and staff helped remove all of the rock from the median by the early childhood parking lot. Then over the summer, Mrs. P planted a special garden to be bloomed in honor of Orchard’s centennial. There are nine tall sunflowers to represent our nine founding mothers, and the many small ones represent all of our amazing students.
 
Students have been gravitating to the new garden art ever since it bloomed. First, second, and third graders have been taking art classes outside and some have used the sunflowers while digging into a project called “Drawing Nature from Observation.” Students are looking closely at their subjects, noticing and adding as many details as possible. 

In Early Childhood, students in Kindergarten start their year with a study of creatures that inhabit our woods. Then kindergarteners compile a list and students choose the top three most-interesting insects, and study groups grow from those votes. The "WORM" classroom recently went on a Habitat Hunt Hike across campus in search of worms and the sunflowers were a must-see destination. Spoiler: no worms were found because it was too sunny and dry.

Students know that worms need soil/dirt, wetness (but not too wet), out of the sun, and food nearby.

First-grade scientists are using tally marks as they track and gather data around the sunflowers. After being assigned a specific zone of sunflowers, students were tasked with recording how many pollinators visited their zones. Math + nature = the Orchard way!
 
Leave it to Orchard to find math concepts blooming from some awesome garden art. We’re excited to see what might happen next. We also hope to see you and your family during Centennial Weekend. Visit orchard.org/100 to RSVP!
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