Garden Update

Roland’s Bird & Butterfly Garden

May 2015 Welcome to Roland’s Bird and Butterfly Garden Come and walk through our new greenhouse to what’s growing! Pumpkins were placed in our flower bed this fall with some Kindergarten students after reading and learning about pumpkins. Those Seeds became buried. Then, this spring, pumpkin plants began growing from those seeds and now we have a beautiful pumpkin plant! Some Kindergarten and 4-6^th grade ELL Students also planted tomato, pepper and bean seeds in March as we were studying the life cycle of plants. As the plants began to grow and get bigger, they were then transplanted into larger containers in our greenhouse.  Several of the ELL students also weeded and prepared the garden prior to planting flowers for Earth Day. Many grade levels and their teachers participated in this wonderful event. Mrs. Saur’s chorus even sang a few songs in our garden! Mr. Diaz, who installed our sprinkler system last summer is also looking into expanding it and could use help from any parent or business in regards to this area! Roland’s FSA members came out to support us on Earth Day by planting flowers and donating an umbrella, a beautiful magnolia tree, a rhododendron bush, bird seed, and various flowers. In addition, a lovely child’s table and chair set was also donated by a parent and FSA member. It was then put together for us by her 5^th grade daughter Samantha Tavarez and her dad. Then, Mrs. Randsdorp coordinated a time that the set could be painted by Samantha and her two 5^th grade classmates, Gianna Cox and Chichi Wokocha. Please make sure you take a look in the garden at what a wonderful job the girls did! The chairs and table look so pretty!! Thank you again for your wonderful support girls! New cedar birdhouses have been also placed in the garden and were made and donated to us by Mr. Joseph Randsdorp. As soon as they were placed, House Wrens made their nests in them and now we have two expecting bird families! We are now expanding our garden with the help of Dr. Moore and the student council as more fencing has just been purchased and will be installed soon! Thank you Dr. Moore and student council! Finally, we are very thankful for our maintenance staff as they spent many hours putting together the greenhouse for Roland! We also want to thank our custodial staff for their support too!   Parents, please feel free to participate in any way you can towards our organic growing projects and further building of our wildlife habit. Currently, we are in need of some bird seed, potting soil or flowers.  We look forward to providing enriching and wonderful learning opportunities for all students at Roland and their families with our school garden and greenhouse! So come on out and read a book with your child by the picnic table, or watch the beautiful birds and butterflies as they come into our garden area! Sincerely, Mrs. Debora Randsorp, ELL Teacher   randsdorpd@gtps.k12.nj.us        Mr. Jose Diaz, ELL Teacher    diazj@gtps.k12.nj.us