Unity Garden Plot

Today the sixth period students were able to complete both long-term projects. Tasting the pickles they had made, most were surprised that they liked the taste. Ethan was NOT a big fan, but at least he tried them. Those who wanted to were able to take home a ziplock bag of the pickles to share with others. We did get a thumbs up from Mrs. Borchers, West Unit principal, who enjoyed her taste test.

One group of students put the extra pickles in bags while another group transplanted the container garden into our official Unity Garden plot. It took a good deal of work, and Jacob made sure we maintained his original plan which integrated pollinating flowers within the vegetables and herbs to encourage bee visits this summer.

6th Period Pickle Project !

Students in the Daily Living Skills have been working hard to maintain the worm composting bin, start the container garden, and . . . make pickles.

After soaking the cucumbers in boiling water for

four days, Hannah cut them up to soak them in the

pickling solution.

Jacob checks on the the flowers and plants in our 

container garden will be transplanted into our class

plot in the Unity Garden before the end of 

the school year. The garden will be ready 

to harvest by the middle of the summer.

This is the recipe we followed while making our pickles. We did NOT follow the canning portion, but everyone had the opportunity to taste the pickles and to take home a small ziplock bag of the final product. 

Gardens and . . . Worms

Students in the Daily Living Skills elective are learning how to go about planning for and starting their own garden. This involves fertilizing the soil, so they researched and constructed a worm compost bin. It is still early, but there is hope the snow peas will germinate, the strawberries will bloom, the geraniums and lavender will continue to smell fantastic, and the tomatoes will produce some cherry-sized fruit.

Words Per Minute

If we had a competition to see who could TEXT the fastest, I'm sure most of you easily could put me to shame. Texting is fun and can be important, but do you know what is important in a job, what is important to successfully finish work at school, and what you need to be able to accurately do in order to fill out an online job application? 

You need to be able to accurately and quickly type.

"Type" as in type on a keyboard. You need to know how to use BOTH HANDS AND ALL FINGERS to type. Holding your place in a book and pecking out an answer with one finger is NOT typing. It is not fast, it is not accurate, and it is not efficient.

I am posting a screenshot of my results at 10 Fast Fingers  which you can see here. I dare you to beat my wpm (words per minute) score. I would be thrilled if you can beat my score using both of your hands. Do you know where "home base" is on your keyboard? No? Well all the first graders do. And the third graders. And the people older than you who might be applying for the same summer job you are applying for. 

Please BEAT MY SCORE. I will provide an excellent treat to any student who can beat my typing wpm score using this site.

Good luck!

Spring Break Adventure

Best break ever? Not the best? 

I have experienced a little bit of both this week. 

First, I was ill and spent the first three days doing NOTHING but wishing I felt better. Then things turned around, and I was ready for fun by Thursday. 

I looked online and found out that the movie theater behind the Dayton Mall only charges $1 admission on the last day a movie shows, so we celebrated by watching two movies in a row -- I don't know if I've ever done that before! We watched Taken 3, which was nerve-wracking, and and Big Hero 6 which was hysterical. My son laughed so hard I was worried they would ask us to leave. 

What did YOU do that you enjoyed, at least a little?