GHCDS Shines at Agri-Fest 2023

Below is a wonderful view of this years ag fair project submissions. Congratulations to all who worked hard to make this event a success and to all the student volunteers that represented GHCDS so well at many other Ag Fair booths and activities.

Agriculture: Growing Today for Tomorrow-You, Me, All Ah We!

In Ecology, a community is a combination of all of the living things in an ecosystem.  We were inspired by the connections between all of the different parts of our island’s communities, both in nature and culturally.  You, Me, All Ah We.  The life cycles of plants and animals show us how nature plans for the future.  Today for Tomorrow. 

Butterfly Garden

Class: Pre-Kindergarten

Teachers: Ms. Lake and Ms. Dowd

The Pre-K class learned about flowers which attract butterflies-ones which provide lots of little nectar opportunities with lots of little flowers, and places for their legs to rest. They made these paper flowers that look like Ixora and planted a butterfly garden along the sidewalk; students counted plants and sorted them, then each student chose one plant to put in the earth.

C is for Caterpillar

Class: Nursery 

Teachers: Ms. Lake and Ms. Dowd

The Nursery Children enjoyed The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.  Middle School students helped with caterpillar hats with antennae for the youngest members of our community. Like the hungry caterpillar, our nursery children are growing and changing every day!

“The Butterfly and the Millipede”

Class: Nursery, Pre-Kinder and Kindergarten

Teacher: Ms. Thompson

All of the Early Learning Center children danced to “The Butterfly and the Millipede.”  The millipede music is played by a French Horn with low sounding notes and the butterfly is played by the piccolo and harp synthesizer.  It was composed by Howard Baer.

Butterfly Lifecycle

Class: Kindergarten

Teacher: Ms. Cerni

The Kindergarten children learned about butterfly life cycles and created symmetrically patterned wings. Middle School students helped by building the wings and the Kindergarten students decorated the wings with matching patterns out of colored fabric and other materials.

Eggs 

Class: First Grade

Teacher: Ms. Deevy

Who are you calling chicken?  The first graders at GHCDS learned about the conditions that a mother chicken provides for her eggs, and then set up an incubator to provide those conditions for a bunch of chicken eggs.  At ___ days, the eggs were candled. (can we have a picture of that candleing?)

What else did we learn or discover in this process?

Planting with SEA/Park Service

Class: Second Grade

Teacher: Ms. Lambert

During our field trip to Salt River Bay, 2nd graders learned the difference between endemic, native, and endangered plants on St. Croix and their importance to our land, animals, the surrounding Caribbean Sea, and the future of our island. We were joined by the St. Croix National Park Service and SEA’s outreach coordinator, Olivia Walton. We explored the co-operated SEA and Park Service greenhouse, then hiked down to the bay to plant native red and white mangroves and sea purslane. 2nd graders were thrilled to participate in planting to improve erosion control and plant diversity. 

We created a collage model of St. Croix that includes pictures and information about Salt River Bay and the native plants we planted on the shore.     

Pollinators on St. Croix

Class: Third Grade

Teachers: Ms. Iubelt and Ms. Welch

Third grade students were inspired on a trip to the St. George Village Botanical Gardens to learn more about pollinators. Students learned it takes more than just bees to pollinate.  They learned about how different flowers prefer different pollinators like bees and hummingbirds. 

Students created models of pollinators and flowers, both real and futuristic on a map of their island, St. Croix with the theme of “Growing Today for Tomorrow-You, Me, All Ah We!”  Visitors will find three-dimensional flowers, bees and hummingbirds on a map of St. Croix.  There will be a display of fun facts on these pollinators and a poster board of futuristic flowers and pollinators. 

‘All Ah We’ Anthology

Class: Fourth Grade

Teacher:  Ms. Bishop

Fourth grade learned all about the structure and components of poetry by studying mentor texts and looking to nature for inspiration. Each student created a poem that expressed what the theme meant to them personally: Today for Tomorrow- You, Me, All Ah We! Five students were chosen to represent GHCDS Lower School in the Agriculture Fair Poetry contest. 

Bush Tea for All Ah We

Classes: Fifth Grade

Teachers: Ms. Hill and Ms. Fitzgerald

Fifth grade students researched the health benefits of the local plants from around the island. The plants they researched were either plants that students and families donated from around their homes or from our campus! They learned about lemongrass, lemon sage, genip leaves, mango leaves, basil, mint, soursop leaves, and sorrel and then groups decided on what to include in the bush tea. All ingredients (except for the mango leaves, due to an allergy) were used in our two tea batches and they were delicious!

Bountiful Breadfruit 

Class: Sixth Grade

Teachers: Ms. Mo and Ms. Bohlke

The 6th Grade visited Ridge to Reef Farm to learn more about plants on our island, specifically breadfruit.  We learned that there are many varieties of breadfruit, but only two main ones used on St. Croix.  There are other yummy varieties from Hawaii and Samoa that have been imported here.  Also, breadfruit is a highly sustainable crop.  One reason breadfruit is sustainable is that you only have to till the land once, and it only takes about 5 years before it begins to produce fruit.  Then it provides many years of food!

We created posters based on our research of breadfruit.  They include history, growing, sustainability, and even recipes!  Take a look at our hand-drawn pictures as well as our research findings.

Middle School Provisions

Classes: Seventh and Eighth Grades

Teacher: Ms. Coles 

In Social Studies Middle School students discussed cash crops in history, such as tobacco, cotton and sugarcane.  Since these cash crops have little nutritional value, and are sold to other people, other food was grown in provision grounds.  The book In the Shadow of Slavery taught us that ships were stocked with root crops in Africa to feed the people on the journey to the Caribbean.  Also, in areas where hurricanes visit, root provisions are better than grains like wheat or oats.  They can also be harvested any time.

In Project Green School, students planted yams and sweet potatoes and cooked plantains.  We also are able to grow and eat tomatoes, green peppers, cucumber, mint and basil almost continuously. 

Project Green School

Class: Project Green School Elective

Teacher: Ms. Coles

Students in the Project Green School Electives were involved in many activities to promote a healthy and clean campus using the thirteen pathways to sustainability.  Our biggest projects this year were around Food Production in the school garden and Waste Management, encouraging students in all grades to bring their compostable lunch scraps to the compost bin.   Middle School students visited lower school with lessons and games they created to teach the younger children about composting.  

Another focus was on Biodiversity. Some students made presentations of the different animal species that we see on campus, others made tree identification signs, and others made a scavenger hunt for third graders on our nature trail.  

Community Posters by Upper School Advisories

In Advisory groups, Upper School students discussed “What it means to be a Panther” and “What it means to be a Crucian.”