Square Foot Garden Project Update

That is one giant radish leaf!

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Our homeschool class has been working hard to prepare for the Blossom Valley Scholastic Day Camp, which starts soon! You can read about it here: Blossom Valley Scholastic Day Camp

This is an update that will consist of a few pictures of our Square Foot Garden Project.    Recently we have cloned tomatoes, harvested radishes, transplanted mint and picked several tasty strawberries.

Photographing the garden.

Examining a radish leaf.

Hammerhead added bean poles to his garden.  

This is the true sign of an optomistic gardener!

Stay tuned for a post by Hammerhead called "How to Clone Tomatoes"

Mean Radish MCS

Welcome back it is MCS!

Yesterday, I measured my radishes and the mean height was 11 cm. The mean leaf length was 13 cm. Hammerhead123's mean height was 5.5 cm.The mean length of his longest leaf was 6.8 cm.

My growth rate of the height is 1.0 cm/day and the leaf length increases by 0.8 cm/day.

My radishes are growing faster than Hammerhead123's radishes because his radishes were in competition with each other (called: intraspecific competition) from right when they came out of the seed. When they got above the soil they grew thin and tall like a small tree. My radishes did not have to fight for food or light so they grew bushy with big, long leaves.

If you have any more information about growing big radishes or questions for me please leave a comment.

Cloning Tomatoes in the Square Foot Garden

This is a photograph of our recently cloned tomatoes.

In the past week, I have replanted melons and tomatoes, cloned tomatoes from my mom and dad's garden and I have one strawberry that is red. I also added mulch to the top of my garden to conserve moisture.

The word of the week is cloning, which means copying an organism.

The tip of the week is how to clone tomatoes. The reason to clone tomatoes is that you can make an exact copy of your favorite tomato variety for little or no money. Did you know that most tomatoes you buy at the store are actually clones?

Here are some simple directions for cloning. If you would like more information on cloning tomatoes, click here.

Step one: Cut off a three inch branch that is still growing. This is called a "cutting".

Step two: Stick the cutting in damp soil in the shade.

Step three: Cover in plastic and wait until roots begin grow.

Cloning is that easy!!!!

California Homeschool Photo Gallery by Limelight Education

Here is a photo slideshow of some projects that we did this year.  These pictures were posted by Limelight Education, LLC.

Projects:
Fraction Toast
Blueberry Eggs
Square Foot Gardening


Extra special thank you to Learning with Love Dog Training and Shelter Dogs to Dream Dogs.
Please click on their links above if you would like to rescue a dog or train your dog to stay out of your Square Foot Garden!

Projects and Activities Photographs

I created a photo gallery of projects from the 2009/2010 school year.  Click on the photo above to visit the photo gallery.

Educational Website Review Spelling City www.spellingcity.com

This is our review of the website http://www.spellingcity.com

You can get there by clicking here: Spelling City

Overview: At Spelling City a student or teacher can type in words to be learned and choose to play a game, take a test or be taught by a computer voice. The best we found game was "hangmouse". A student must know what the words are before beginning and also must input the spelling correctly.

Rated on a Scale of 1-10

Appearance? 6.5/10

Kid Friendly? 8/10

Would I use it again? maybe

Comments:

MCS - "It is good because it doesn't let you learn words that were misspelled from the beginning."

Hammerhead123: "The voice talks to me like I am a second grader"

Do you have any suggestions? Please comment on our blog!

Square Foot Garden Math 5th and 4th Grade

Are you ready for some Square Foot Garden Math?

Here is the data from our gardens at 10 am today, May 19, 2010.

MCS average plant height:
Radish 2.8 cm
Basil 0 cm
Tomato 0cm

HammerHead123 average plant height:
Strawberry 11.1 cm
Radish 4.5 cm
Cucumber 3.9 cm
Beans 5.5 cm
Melon 0.0 cm
Tomato 3.7 cm
* The 0.0 cm data means that the plant didn't sprout.

4th Grade Square Foot Garden Math

(by MCS)

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE IN HEIGHT BETWEEN CUCUMBERS AND BEANS?

5.5 cm - 3.9 cm = 1.6 cm

5th Grade Square Foot Garden Math

(by Hammerhead123)

WHAT IS THE MEAN, MEDIAN, MODE AND RANGE OF ALL PLANT HEIGHTS?

MEAN: 2.8 +4.5+0+0+3.7+11.1+3.9+5.5+0= 31.5 cm

31.5/9= 3.5 cm

MEDIAN: 0,0,0,2.8,3.7,3.9,4.5,5.5,11.1 = 3.7 cm

MODE: 0

RANGE: 11.1-0= 11.1 cm

Thank you for reading our blog!

If you have any tips, please leave a comment!

Posted by WBD and Hammerhead123

The California Homeschool Blog

Welcome to the California Homeschool Blog!
by Limelight Education (San Diego, CA)


Limelight Education is a San Diego based homeschool and tutoring service. This blog is written by students and adults and will cover current homeschool projects and events.

Current Authors:
HammerHead123: He is a 5th grade student and an up and coming triathlete. Hammerhead recently placed 2nd in the 12-15 age group of the Spring Sprint Triathlon in San Diego.

MCS: She is a 4th grade student who single-handedly operates Happy Cat Rescue, a cat adoption service.

WD: He is a  homeschool teacher, tutor and the Director of Limelight Education

Today is Friday, April 30 and we are excited to start off our blog with an outdoor project: SQUARE FOOT GARDENING

Why are we doing this project?
To apply 4th and 5th grade standards to real world projects and to identify ways to grow more food in less space.

Please check back for posts by MS, KS and myself, WD.