Green River Restoration Project - Thursday, Nov 20 2008
Two Orca 4th/5th grade classes visited the Okimoto Levee in Kent and planted over 500 native plants! We worked in conjunction with King County & Earthcorps to restore a river area with native plants grown at Orca over the last 3 years. Our resident native plant guru & Orca parent- John Koon- set up this amazing opportunity for students to do a community service project. This project continues the extensive work that 4th/5th grade are doing learning about native NW plants.
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Welcome to Orca's new garden!! - Wednesday, Nov 19 2008
Welcome parents, students, and community members to Orca's new garden! We are creating an amazing program full of hands-on learning that will inspire schools across the world to adopt a philosophy of sustainability, community gardening, and environmental stewardship. Please check out our Orca Garden blog at http://orcagarden.wordpress.com This blog will keep you updated on all the great things that students are doing at Orca. Currently we are creating a master plan for our new garden area, that will have a strong focus on native plants, medicinal herbs, drought tolerant plants, and many more interesting themes (including a pizza garden!).     [ Read More... ]

Restoration of Native Plants along the Green River - Saturday, May 10 2008
NOTES FROM OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM

Green River Field Trip
Orca’s fourth and fifth graders got on two school buses on Friday morning 5/2/08 and headed out to the Green
River in Kent to work with EarthCorps staff on restoration and exploration of the riverbeds there.     [ Read More... ]

MULCH at the P Patch - Sunday, Jan 13 2008
What an amazing day at ORCA for Melanie’s class and the Hillman City P-Patch!


I was inspired by the experience of Melanie’s 3rd grade children on Friday January 10th as we mulched our P patch beds. Rita Howard prepared a marvelous educational story about the scarcity of good land to garden and farm, and our need to protect the soil from washing away (erosion) and to build up it’s richness.     [ Read More... ]

Vermicomposting - Saturday, Dec 8 2007
Vermicomposting & Coir!

What's vermicomposting? Using red wiggler worms (very social and hungry little guys) in bedding of coconut husks (COIR) and paper to digest our table scraps from snacks and cafeteria to make rich, dark compost for our garden beds and reduce our waste.     [ Read More... ]

Wrapping up the National Gardening Association Adopt a School Program - Saturday, Dec 8 2007
ORCA GARDEN PROGRAM THANKS THE NATIONAL GARDENING ASSOCIATION AND ORGANIC VALLEY

Back in 2006, our Garden Coordinator Kenya Fredie registered ORCA into the Adopt a School Garden Program within the National Gardening Association (NGA). This program offered ORCA $2500 in funds for our garden as well as a special opportunity of a visit from local farmer. NGA believes that gardening helps children grow — mentally, emotionally, and physically. School gardens help students connect with nature and better understand where their food comes from, and they provide a context for teaching nutrition and encouraging healthy lifestyles. Gardens also provide opportunities for hands-on learning in subjects across the curriculum     [ Read More... ]
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Building a Thoughtful Environmental Program - Tuesday, Nov 27 2007
Rita Howard, our Garden and Environmental Education Coordinator, has been hard at work laying the foundation of an integrated environmental learning program for all Orca students. She says, "Our contribution towards long-term environmental solutions will be to have educated and raised a generation that can do better than we have done."     [ Read More... ]