Planting Party!

Last November our wonderful group of Vandy volunteers built a sustainable green house out of plastic water bottles, this week we finally where able to have our long awaited planting party! We filled two of the three planters with soil and planted celery, pepper, basil, thyme, and lemon verbena. The kids had a really fun time digging around in the soil and getting their hands dirty.

Planting master Cate showing them how its done

Prof Heather, Emily and Mateo

Profe Heather and Joel planting some peppers

After helping us plant in the planter boxes, the kids got to plant their own seeds in egg cartons, some of which will be used in the green house, others were taken home by the kids who planted them. It was a fun afternoon of planting and we are excited to watch the plants and seeds grow! Hopefully soon we will be able to use some of the plants in our Adult Cooking and Nutrition class.

Waiting in line to get seeds

Planting tomato and basil seeds 

We hope to continue talks about the different environmental issues that are found here in the community where we work! 

Reading and Eating! Two New Programs in the Library

The library has recently developed a few new programs to get the kids excited about reading and making healthy snack choices. The new reading challenge created by PDs Torie Taylor and challenges kids to read a new book and write a small report on it. Every time they turn in a book report a new sticker is Placed next to Their Name on a board displaced in the library, after a certain number of book reports are turned in the participant will receive an ice cream treat! Once the kids caught onto the reading club poster filled with names and stickers! It has been a great way to challenge kids to read something new every time they come to the library. 

Children's Nutrition also recently adopted a new program on Friday afternoons, which encourages you the kids to make more educated choices when it comes to snacking. It is very common to see kids in the library with chips, candy or ice cream every day so PDs Cate, Claudia, Nick, and Abby thought it would be a good idea to introduce a new healthy to snack to every week, Accompanied with a short talk (chat) about  what makes this food a better choice then the very commonly sighted junk food. The first few lectures have gone really well with high attendance and kids gobbling up the snacks as fast as then can!