La Escuela Naciones Unidas

La Escuela Naciones Unidas
Granada, Nicaragua

Lesson Plan: Week #5

Week #5 Lesson Plan

Theme: Seedbeds/Planting

·      Lesbia's lesson on seedbeds (translated from Spanish) 

o   General Aspects of a school garden
  Find a spot
  Makes sure it is protected from animals and students
 Materials:
·      Ash, compost, water, seeds, rakes, shovels.
  Rake and mix up dirt
  Add ash and compost and make mounds
  Water
  Use your finger to make a hole
  Plant seeds
  Lightly cover with dirt
  Water
  It can be in two forms:
·      Direct
o   Carrots, cucumber, etc.
·      Indirect: Seedbeds
o   Tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, etc.
  The point of a seedbed is to care for the seed until it is a plant and protect it, and then transplant it to the garden
  What you need:
·      Shovels, rakes, pick axes, ash, organic soil, seeds, water,
o   Irrigation system
  Before it grows: water 3 times a day
  1 week: 2 times a day
  All the following days: once a day
  Last three days until transplant: don’t water
The day of transplanting: lots of water 
o   Pepper
  Duration of Germination (days): 10-12
  Period of transplant (days): 20-26
  Distance between grooves (cm): 50
  Distance between plants (cm): 45
  Depth (cm): 1
Period of harvest (days):
·      Initial: 70
·      Final: 100
o   Tomato
  Duration of Germination (days): 10-12
  Period of transplant (days): 20-25
  Distance between grooves (cm): 100
  Distance between plants (cm): 60
  Depth (cm): 1
  Period of harvest (days):
·      Initial: 70
·      Final: 100
o   Pumpkin
  Duration of Germination (days): 6-8
  Period of transplant (days): ---
  Distance between grooves (cm): 300
  Distance between plants (cm): 300
  Depth (cm): 2-3
  Period of harvest (days):
·      Initial: 80
·      Final: 100
o   Pipián (A type of spice)
  Duration of Germination (days): 6-8
  Period of transplant (days): ---
  Distance between grooves (cm): 300
  Distance between plants (cm): 300
  Depth (cm): 2-3
  Period of harvest (days):
·      Initial: 70
·      Final: 100
o   Lettuce
  Duration of Germination (days): 6-7
  Period of transplant (days): 12-25
 Distance between grooves (cm): 45
  Distance between plants (cm): 30
  Depth (cm): 1
  Period of harvest (days):
·      Initial: 50
·      Final: 65
o   What is germination?
  When the seed comes from the earth

·      Take kids outside to plant seeds we collected last week
·      Back to the classroom to do evaluations

o   1. What are 3-4 things you need to make a school garden?
o   2. What was the most fun class and why?
o   3. What was the most boring class and why?
o   4. What can you do to care for your garden in the future?

·      Materials

o   Paper/notebooks

o   Seeds
o   Shovels
o   Water
o   Ash
o   Compost
o   Rakes

Comments:
            I can’t take any credit for this week, it was all Lesbia’s creative genius!

      I had originally planned on doing planting our last week with the kids, but Lesbia suggested we make seedbeds as well as gardens. I am so happy she suggested this because it turns out it was the only time we were able to plant with the students. Unfortunately, Semana Santa (the week leading up to Easter) happened to fall my second to last week in Nicaragua and the following week many of the schools didn’t have class due to an extended vacation and teacher workshops. Planting the seedbeds this week gave the kids a chance to celebrate all the hard work they had done over the last five weeks. The overwhelming response on the evaluations was that this was the kid's favorite activity. A goal of ours was to be able to demonstrate to the kids how easy it is to put a garden in. You don’t need fancy tools and lots of money, all you need is creativity and resourcefulness.

Below are a few pictures of the seedbeds we made:





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