Patrick Henry Post

This month, we have taken an incredible amount of time to prepare our school garden for planting. We have cleaned the garden area, used our hundreds of student hands to weed the garden beds, brought in fresh soil and fertilizer, and readied the beds for seeds. Our students are 100% in charge of the garden, so when you see growth happening, it is because of their efforts to keep the garden healthy! This spring we are planting short-term growth vegetables like leafy greens, radishes, and asparagus, but we are also planting long-term growth vegetables like watermelon and pumpkins, that won't be ready for harvesting until next school year! Thank you to all of our students, our staff, and our volunteers who make this garden a reality every single season!

Everyone is welcome at the Patrick Henry Garden! Take a look below for ways that you can contribute!

• As a student: Come to school every day so that you never miss your class opportunity to work in the garden. Explore outside and make sure you ask questions when you experience something new. Be open-minded to trying new fruits and vegetables that you can grow yourself! Share your knowledge with your family when you get home each day.
• As a teacher: Take your students out to the garden for regular, frequent visits. Plant, harvest, weed, and clean the area. Build class recipes with your students so they take ownership over the garden and the growing process.
• As a support staff member: Use the garden as a relaxing place for students who are struggling or who need a calm, peaceful space to take a break.
• As a parent: Ask your students what they're planting in the garden, and try their foods when they get to bring them home. Cook together with the Patrick Henry garden ingredients. Come to the school and volunteer with your child in the garden.
• As a neighbor: Plant anything you want in our garden - this is a true community garden and all seeds are welcome! Donate any tools or gloves you are willing to spare.
• As a volunteer: Check with Ms. Shanice Webb (shanice.webb@slps.org) on how to complete your volunteer application so that you can work with our students and share your expertise on how to create beautiful growth in a school garden.

Take a look around the school, and you will see so many new and beautiful items cropping up just about everywhere. Our team has been incredibly busy with DonorsChoose projects and utilizing the school budget to improve our environment. We are always trying to make our space as beautiful, inviting, and relaxing as possible so that our students get the very best out of our building every single day.

All of our STAR winners this week got to take a dive in the treasure bin in order to be recognized for their excellent efforts in Related Arts this week! Winners included:

• Kaidyn McCoy from Ms. Teska's class
• Anthony Madison from Ms. Jackson's class
• Rai Dickerson from Ms. Willard's class
• Ibrahim Musa from Ms. Jackson's class
• Charley Massey-Thompson from Ms. Hammock's class
• Damoni Walton from Ms. Teska's class

Congratulations to all of our winners, and to every student who earned their STARS this week!

Take a look down Ms. Evans' long hallway and you will see her additional bean bags chairs, space dividers, and even flags. Each element is meant to invite you in to the readers' atmosphere, where children are diving deep into their books every single day.

Every day in our Patrick Henry school pledge, we say the line, "I am capable, independent, and strong!" Every day we live that line in our day to day activities, and nothing shows off our strength more than our students' efforts in PE class. Take a look at these preschoolers taking on the push-up challenge with great success!

We just cannot seem to stop dressing alike...someone please help us solve this mystery! Why does the front office staff continually dress alike, even though none of us ever check in with each other about what to wear that day??

One of our young artists began an art collage this week with a powerful message. We cannot wait to find out how this piece of artwork turns out, and we also love seeing our students use their creativity to express deep and personal messages to the world. What is art for, if not to inspire us, challenge our thinking, and express beautiful ideas?

We have a strong relationship with the St. Louis Police Department, and this week, one of our neighborhood officers was driving through the area when she saw our students at recess. When she stopped by to say hello, she just had to join the jump rope fun. It was wonderful to see our students interacting with involved, invested police officers who see our kids as kids!

Ms. Willard's kindergarten students had the joy this week of a visitor, an Easter egg hunt, and even jellybean math! Students were very pleased when their math lesson turned into a taste test. A bonus was that they were learning while they were having so much fun! We wish everyone who celebrates Easter a very happy Good Friday and we hope you have a fabulous time this weekend celebrating with your families!