October 2, 2018
2L had their fall garden lesson. They practiced their observation skills and turned their observations into a sensory poem (five senses poem). They also planted some Chinese kale.
Please ask your children about their lessons and what they observed in the garden.
October 2, 2018
3F had their garden lesson and the kids seem to have a lot of fun. We planted the lettuce seeds in the bed closest to the shed.
The ribbon test was a little challenging (hard to make a ball out of the soil and water) but the kids just enjoyed getting messy. Ribbon test is used to estimate soil texture and the amount of clay in the soil. More information on the ribbon test. Below is a quick video for reference.
October 5, 2018
5N and 5S had a wonderful garden lesson on a beautiful (non-rainy) day. They measured, harvested, weighed and counted the potatoes that they planted last spring and were able to determine the best method to plant potatoes. Each child brought home a potato and a small pot.
May 5, 2018
A big thank you to all of the wonderful volunteers who helped with May Day this year. We had a super parent team that has out done themselves. Continue reading
November 18, 2017
The KRS families, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and 10 Newark Academy students commemorated our Veterans in a beautiful ceremony in the morning. Continue reading
September 29, 2017
Today 4E had their fall garden lesson. Continue reading
September 28, 2017
It was a fabulous day in the garden with the Kindergarten’s. Continue reading
September 28, 2017
1K had their fall garden lesson today. Continue reading
September 26, 2017
2F enjoyed a beautiful morning in the KRS garden on Tuesday, September 26. Continue reading
Garden reception on Back to School Night: 6:30 to 7 pm and all throughout the night visit the garden for yummy lemonade and zucchini bread made from zucchinis KRS children grew!
Green Team meetings: September 25th at 8 pm at the KRS library and September 27 th at 10am at the garden. Please come by to learn what we’re up to for this year and contribute your ideas and suggestions!
Garden classes start the week of September 25th. Please email us at krsptogreenteam@gmail.com, if interested in teaching garden lessons.
Saturday, May 6 2017 was May Day in Madison. The Madison community came together to beautify our lovely town. The KRS community beautified the school with approximately 70 parent and children volunteers. Continue reading
April 22, 2017 is Earth Day! Visit the site to learn more about events on Earth Day. Continue reading
In February, we had some beautiful days to prepare for the KRS learning garden. We had some wonderful volunteers come out to help prepare for the spring planting. Following are just some of the preparation done in February and it continues. Continue reading
The Museum of Early Trades and Crafts is having an exhibit from January to September called “Garden State: Living off the Land in Early New Jersey”. Our KRS vegetable garden will be part of the exhibit! The 1st graders artwork from their fall garden lesson will be part of the exhibit and their families were all invited to the grand opening on January 26th. Very exciting! Continue reading
November 2016
The KRS Green Team has already been busy as we begin November. On Saturday, November 5th the team honored our veterans and thanked them for their service to our country. Thank you to the veterans that came out and all the KRS families and friends who joined to honor them. Following are some pictures from the commemoration. Continue reading
November 2016
The KRS garden is in full bloom and ready to be harvested. In early, November the students will be tasting the vegetables from the garden they have lovingly help create and maintain. Continue reading
October 2016
We started Trashless Tuesdays at KRS in May of 2016 and already began seeing a difference in the amount of trash that was created during the 1 – 3 and 4 – 5 grade lunches. Continue reading
October 2016
Our garden lessons continued with the 5th grade learning about various gardening methods. They learned about and practiced one method of garden planting that saves space and helps us grow more in the space we have. Traditionally plants are planted in rows. You can see this in most of our school garden. This method has many benefits and works very well in large fields like you might have seen in our own NJ – the Garden State. Continue reading
October 2016
The 3rd grade students explored ways to determine the texture of soil samples then help install the soil in the garden. Continue reading
October 2016
The 2nd graders have been busy learning about harvesting the beautiful seeds KRS has been planting since September. Continue reading
October 2016
In the past few weeks, KRS classes have attended their first garden lessons in the new KRS vegetable garden. The vegetable garden was built this summer by KRS parents, students, friends and family. Its intention is to enhance the educational experience by teaching the following subjects: gardening, how vegetables grow, taste of fresh vegetables, inspiration to come up with recipes of their vegetables, understanding the relationship between the food we eat and the environment, importance of fresh vegetables to our health and well being, garden as a resource for tranquility, simplicity of providing nourishing food to those in need and beautiful art projects that can be done for a garden. Continue reading
September 18, 2016
We are already seeing seedlings emerge from the beautiful learning garden. This weekend, we added tree stump seating for the kids as they learn and taste from the garden.
September 5, 2016
While our students will be helping to plant a wide variety of cool weather vegetables over the course of the next few weeks, this week our first vegetables were put planted in our new beds. We hope to start seeing the seedlings poke through the soil in the next 2-3 weeks just in time for our garden visits with every class to begin. Continue reading
Volunteers from the KRS community came out again this past Sunday, (August 28th) to finish building the vegetable garden. Continue reading
On Saturday, August 21st, we had over 30 volunteers from the KRS community as well the Eagle Scout and his recruits. Tremendous teamwork resulted in a huge amount of work being accomplished while having fun and learning a great deal. Continue reading
On Monday, June 13 2016 KRS received a proclamation from Mayor Conley for all of our Trashless Tuesdays efforts. We are proud of the reduction in trash overall and increase in recycling plastic, glass, tera packs and cardboard. A big thank you to the KRS kids and parents. Continue reading
May Day 2016 was a turning point for the KRS community. After years of low turnout on May Day, this year the school had over 75 volunteers show up – in pouring rain- to beautify the front of the school. Kings Road School is charming in many ways- the children running down the hill when school is out, the warm and loving teachers and Principal, the community of parents that chat during picking up and dropping off their kids. The one exception was the walkway leading to the front entrance of the school.
With careful planning and a committed group of volunteers that has now changed. The walkway is now lined with beautiful flowers and outstanding garden art, created by the KRS children. There were even volunteers who came Friday afternoon to prepare for the hard work on Saturday. This included parents, students, and volunteers from Newark Academy earning community service credits. Saturday morning was a larger crowd with many Cub Scout and Daisy troops represented. The committed volunteers stayed well past the stated end time of 11am. Until 1pm they were planting, mulching, and cleaning away all the mud. ByMonday morning, right on the heels of a fantastic Teachers Appreciation week, the teachers and staff walked in with beautiful flowers and adorable rock art of ladybugs and bumble bees greeting them.
The beautification of the KRS grounds was truly a community effort. The garden art was done prior to May Day by the morning and aftercare students and some on May Day itself by our young helpers.
The planning of May Day incorporated thoughtfulness on school colors, cost-effectiveness, blooming times of the plants and flowers to coincide with the school year, and longevity. Three butterfly bushes were planted outside of Mrs. Goodbread’s classroom to help with the second grade butterfly project. Many of the plants already on campus were reorganized, including making a beautiful hosta ring around the tree dedicated to a long time, beloved crossing guard of KRS. We planted a variety of lillies, catnip, and yellow roses as well as astilbes and ferns that will be up by the time students return to school in the fall. The existing planters on the premises were given a fresh coat of paint and now have yellow marigolds that can be harvested for their seeds each year and shasta daisies that will be planted in the ground this fall. The goal was to plant as many perennials as possible and to stick with the red and yellow school colors.
If interested in learning more, please continue to visit this blog and follow it. The Green Team is in the early stages of creating a vegetable garden that the students can use and learn from. As it gets underway, the Green Team will appreciate the support of the wider Madison community, in terms of maintaining the garden and donated supplies. If interested in learning more please contact the Green Team at krsptogreenteam@gmail.com.
Our talented KRS parent videographer, 5th graders and cafeteria staff would like to teach you the 3Rs – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Watch them in action and you will learn so much about where and how our school trash should be thrown out, what happens to it and what we can do to reduce it. Continue reading
Our KRS students show you how to quickly and efficiently, plan and pack a “trashless” lunch.
January 25, 2018
Garden Lessons will commence week of March 26th and continue for two weeks. Sarah will reach out with a request for supplies and Garden lesson teachers. We are able to start lessons earlier this year because the hoop houses constructed during Fall Beautification Day are working very well. Vegetables are still growing in there!
Garden Party– could be June 9th but waiting to find out when KRS Spring Carnival will be since we don’t want it to be on the same weekend. A Garden Party Committee will plan details. So far those interested in Garden Party Committee are Peggy, Stephanie, Adrienne, Eric, Jen and Rupal. Ideas for party include an obstacle course, scavenger hunt, a movie, arts activities, distributing food made from the garden, selling a cookbook of recipes from KRS families using veggies from the garden. We’d like it to be a fun family day and utilize Livesey Park, adjacent to KRS
Bulb Fundraiser– we will look into having a fundraiser to sell bulbs that can be delivered to us by May for planting in summer. Peggy is looking into it.
May Day– we will form a committee to help plan May Day along with Sarah. Ideas of arts projects are painting planters along front walkway and sides of vegetable beds
Earth Month (April) ideas include every morning have an Earth Minute (each class can be in charge of two minutes) in morning announcements, Shoe Recycling we’ve done the past two years, cleaning up atrium, and Adrienne will spearhead a school-wide challenge to reduce trash generated in the class – mostly from snack time
Blog– Work with Mr. Knevals to get the kids to populate the blog more than us
Other ideas include:
– Selling excess produce from garden during the Farmers Market or donating food to Food Bank
– One day after school handing out prepared food made from the garden at pick up line
– Doing something like a Pumpkins and Poems but in the spring and garden related, e.g. each grade represent a theme like renewable energy or diversity
Kings Road School Green Team 