#1. Kids Garden+ @NetZeroLee

Welcome to the garden newsletter for our learners! My name is Keiko Nishino. I am a "Garden Guru" at RJL and have helped our school garden for four years. Teachers and I collaborate to offer garden activities called Garden Time weekly.

We have grown many vegetables, made compost, and started a flower garden in the past years. Some of you might remember holding events such as a plant sale and a farmers' market. We have an indoor garden to grow transplants in self-watering pots now.

I want to share our garden activities with many learners and know your thoughts and ideas to improve our garden education.

The other day, Ms. Mitchel asked me if there was a name for our garden, and I thought, "Oh, we need a name!". I also thought creating a logo would be fun.

I want your ideas for the name and logo for our garden. I am thinking of using them for official use. For example, I named this newsletter "Kids Garden+", but I need a better one. I will put our garden name in the title of the newsletter.

If you have ideas, please write a garden name or draw a logo on paper with your first name, House, and grade, and put it in the green box on the growing table near the cafeteria and the Red House. Here are some logo examples our learners created in Garden Time.

Planting in the vegetable garden

Y4, Y1, B4A, Y5, and R4 planted onions in January, and P1 & P4 planted transplants (cabbage, kale, broccoli, Swiss Chard, Bok Choy, turnip, & spinach) and pea seeds provided by Child Nutrition last week. Thank you for planting!

Indoor garden

G5 planted various salad greens (spinach, lettuce, arugula, mizuna, and purple kale) in self-watering pots last Thursday, and they have already sprouted! We also try to grow "Money Plant" 💰 and lemon seeds 🍋 from Blue House learners. Let's see how they grow.

Front Loop

In December and January, Kindergarteners and 3rd graders planted pansies, violas, snapdragon, and dianthus in pots to make our school even more beautiful. Check out our Joyful Front Loop project!

In December, B1, B3, B4A took a picture in front of the oak tree at the front entrance during Nature Walk. The fall colors were so beautiful!

B3 & B4A predicted all the leaves would be gone Jan 3-7 and Jan 11-15. Do you think they are all gone now? Check it out!

Also, some bluebonnets are coming back. Look for the unique shape of the leaves!

We will plant potatoes and some seeds when it gets warm, such as carrot, beet, radish, and spinach!

Garden Guru at Richard J. Lee Elementary

I love spending time in the garden, especially with kids and teachers! Besides gardening, I like photography, biking, walking, jigsaw puzzle, art, and watching travel YouTubers' videos.

Email: kenishino@coppellisd.com
Website: https://www.canva.com/design/DAE2C-LbQN8/DG-1zq9v7w0JCzSFjo-Ykw/view
Location: 8808 Chaparral Waters Way, Dallas, TX 75019, USA
Phone: 214-496-7900
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/keiko.nishino.5836/
Twitter: @keikoroann