Post by Susie Hobart, 5th grade teacher:

 

We need your help on Monday, May 13th at 3:30. Read on for an update...

Led by our volunteer contractor (Tim Connor) and volunteer architect (Tom Hirsch) on Saturday, May 4th,  we measured and squared the structure for our pavlion, dug five foot holes, set the 300 pound poles, braced the structure and put up one of the 500 pound headers. Sunday, May 5th,  four dads, one gym teacher, one mom and one friendly lawyer put the last header up, up, up. (Phew!)

Monday, Lycon arrived and poured  concrete around the footings, and our architect's grandaughters smoothed the tops.(Funded by the LOWES Foundation)

Next step - Monday, May 13th,  after school around 3:30 we hope to put up the rafters and if really lucky, screw down the tongue and groove plywood roof sheathing. WE NEED YOUR HELP!

Next we will construct frames around the posts  30" from the ground and have Lycon come back and pour colored concrete in the framing, giving our footings above ground stability. If we are really lucky, Brandon Lincoln will arrive and lay the roofing. If not that day, soon.

Once the pavilion is constructed, our very  own art teacher, Mr. Vang, will install the hundreds of 3 x 3 inch nature based clay tiles made by our very own k-5 artists from the top of the concrete to the top of the structure. (Funded by the Madison Arts Council) Our 4/5th graders will be installing a rain garden between the school and the pavilion to take advantage of the runoff and create a bird friendly habitat.(Funded by National Forestry Foundation)

A wonderful volunteer, Dean, is working with students to build 4 eight foot cedar picnic tables (funded by Willy St)  that will serve as seating in the pavilion. Our friend, Mr. Richard, a retired art teacher, has helped some of our budding artists paint nature murals on the bench seats. Under the pavilion will also be our garden kitchen i.e. a stainless steel table and sink from Kessenichs. (Funded by GHC and the Dane County/ City of Madison Health Department.)

Our new garden beds are up! And thanks to James Kudzin's carpentry and our GROW grant, and Vesna's earth leveling, we now have twelve beds. Two for strawberries, one a Hmong demonstration bed, one a sensory garden and eight for eight of our classrooms. Our K-1st graders planted seeds in science, and now the older students get to transplant them.Moms, Vesna, Zivile and Melissa are all helping classes plant the beds.

We are working to clear the buckthorn, honeysuckles and garlic mustard from the woods. Students are creating walking paths and sitting areas. We are hoping to create a meditative walking path through the woods on our UW Health sponsored Wellness Day, June 10th.

A small group of interested north siders are investigating the purchase of the wetlands adjacent to the school. It could provide a wonderful educational ecosystem for students.

Did you notice that our bushes adjacent to the parking lot are disappearing? We will be replacing the scraggly bushes with edible bushes...service berries and a variety of raspberries.

We are so fortunate to have so many volunteers and parties willing to help us financially. Our friends at the WI Environmental Education Board and Keith Warnke of the DNR were the catalysts last summer.

The plans for the pavilion are in the office windows and garden area plans posted upstairs. Stop and see them. Better yet, come on back around the school, and see what is going on in our exciting OUTDOOR CLASSROOM. Feel free to pull some garlic mustard or stir the compost bins. And if you can, please join us this Monday or at our next pavilion work day.

Going Out on a Limb...again!

On Sunday, November ^11th from 1-4, Lake View Elementary School, located on the corner of Sherman and Tennyson, will continue its mammoth commitment to becoming a school with a strong environmental education focus. The community is invited to a hands-on workday to help restore the 100+old oak savanna that covers much of Lake View’s playgrounds and the deciduous woodlands that frame the north edge of the school grounds.

Bring your energy and we'll provide the work gloves and invasive species to develop your muscles! Our October work days were washed out by the rain, but we managed to clear a large chunk of the upper woodlands. Third time is a charm, so join us and help make our woods "A Great Place for Learning!"

Out on a Limb rain date

Due to forecasted awful thunderstorms for Saturday, we will play it safe for all and postpone our work day to Sunday, October 14---the next day.

Lake View is going Out on a Limb to restore its predominant native oak woodlands with the goal of expanding our school environment beyond our brick walls.

Sunday 9 to 12 and 1 to 4 (pizza at noon)
Bring work gloves and loppers if you have them.
Lake View is located at 1802 Tennyson Lane Madison WI

For more information, email or contact Susie Hobart shobart@madison.k12.wi.us or 608.239.7258.

PS Good news. Wet ground will make pulling honeysuckle and young invasives easier.

"Going out on a Limb" Work Day

Mark your calendars for Lake View Elementary School's "Going out on a Limb" work day!
Saturday, October 13, 9 a.m to noon and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Lake View Elementary school is at 1802 Tennyson Lane in . It's three blocks north of N. Sherman Ave. & Northport Drive on the corner of Sherman Ave. & Tennyson

Help restore the largest white oak habitat in north Madison, and nurture a rare seedling colony of these beautiful, slow-growing trees. We will be removing invasive plants and shrubs from our 100+ year old woodlands, which feature a wide variety of oaks in addition to white, repurposing materials for use in our environmental education/garden program and laying the floor for our outdoor classroom structure.

Join the fun and excitement as Lake View goes "out on a limb"  beyond our built environment using our local natural environment to learn about agriculture, history, culture, forestry,  geography and animal habitats.

This project is funded in part by the Wisconsin Environmental Education Board, Williamson Street Grocery Cooperative, True Value Hardware, Jungs Nursery and local contributors, and with the assistance of the Urban Tree Alliance, Inc.

For more information, email shobart@madison.k12.wi.us

Second-graders harvest salad greens

Mrs. Bazan's second-grade class harvested a bumper crop of mixed lettuces, spinach and radishes. With kid scissors, they snipped bunches of leaves, being careful not to pull out the roots, so that the plants could grow more leaves for another day's snack.

The kids also pulled every radish with a juicy red, pink or white root bulging out of the soil. The rest they left for another day.

Vesna Kovach, mother of Mrs. Bazan's student Ulysses and a longtime garden volunteer, led the effort. The kids carried the harvest back to their classroom, where they all took turns helping Vesna wash and spin the lettuce and spinach. Kids also twisted free the radishes from their bitter leaves -- which went into the compost -- and carefully washed them.

Each student piled his or her plate high with lettuces and spinach, and a few opted for a radish, too. As luck would have it, today was healthy snack day, and crisp cucumbers added to the green feast.

The students picked enough greens for four additional classrooms -- the rest of the second grade, and two more classrooms besides. Mrs. Bazan and Vesna distributed the leafy treasure to the other classrooms.

One teacher, Miss Thousand, noted that the lettuces were sweeter than that tasted at the second-grade field trip to Troy Gardens just the day before. The farmers there said the lettuce was on the bitter side because the weather had been so dry lately.

The conclusion is that 4G gardeners are keeping the lettuce happy with sufficiently frequent watering!

First-ever kid harvest!

For the first time in 4G history, students harvested a crop from the garden for a class-time snack!

Parents Melissa Mooney, Joanne Keane, Zivile Kudzin and Vesna Kovach helped a group of upperclass members snip lettuce and spinach and pluck some juicy radishes.

The kids took bags of freshly harvested greens indoors, where Zivile's handy salad spinner was used to rinse and dry them.

Students made short work of the delicious salad!

Garden receives award from Whole Foods

The  Great Green Growing Garden has been awarded a $100 gift card from the Whole Kids Foundation, a project of Whole Foods Market. Three thousand applications were submitted nationwide for the grants.

Thanks to parents Jim Porter for spearheading the the grant-writing project last fall and Wendy Gasch for her assistance.

Jim Porter, president of the Lake View PTA, was one of the original parents to get the garden project started. In 2009, he and his two sons broke the first ground at the site of what would become the 4G garden.

Wendy Gasch is new to Lake View, as her child started kindergarten this academic year. She is a horticulturalist who worked for several years at Olbrich Gardens and now runs an independent business with her husband.

In the award notification reproduced below, local Whole Foods staff shared some extremely complimentary words about our garden!

Date: May 3, 2012
From: Amanda Jahnke Sauer
RE: Whole Foods Market Madison School Garden Project

Hello Jim and the Great Green Growing Garden team

Thank you so much for applying for the Whole Foods Market School Garden Project.

Although we were not able to grant your school with the full $500 donation this year, we would be delighted to offer a $100 gift card to go towards seedlings, fruit bushes, supplies or anything else we might be able to offer at our store. 

Our Floral Specialist, Jessie, is cc’d. Please feel free to reach out to her directly with any questions on what we carry that might be of interest for your project. The gift card is ready and waiting up at our Customer Service Desk whenever you’re ready.

Let me just say that our review committee was incredibly impressed by your garden and all you’re doing to bring healthy snacks and eating education to your school!

Thanks so much for all that you do.

All our best for another great season,

Amanda