Growing Green by Regan, Madison, Alexis, Ashlyn, Alexa and Olivia

Right now our garden is doing fantastic. A lot of different and beautiful butterflies are attracted to our garden.







Chives are one of the many herbs in our garden. Chives are very tasty in recipes, and are actually a type of onion.









We have many beautiful flowers in our garden. This flower is a dianthus.
Our diantuses are doing very well on it's color and growth.









This is our Italian giant parsley. It is great in Italian dishes (as you can tell by it's name). It is also rich in vitamin C.
We have alot more herbs and flowers, so come back next week for another Growing Green post!!! =)

MOUNTAIN GORILLAS by Alexa Williams

The Mountain Gorilla

The Mountain Gorillas are very social and normally only aggressive when threatened. The adult male is the one who will stand in the middle of the group and pound his chest.

This is a male beating his chest










This is an infant Mountain Gorilla




Threats: poaching and habitat destruction
Weight: 340 pounds
Habitat: Forest altitudes of 5450-12500 feet
Population: 600
Current Range: Rwanda, Zaire, and Uganda
Lifespan: 40 years
Diet: Herbivores
(leaves+young shoots)
Interesting Facts:
- The Mountain Gorillas have no mating season
- Relationships on females are weak
-61% of groups have 1 adult male and a number of females
- Males leave the group around age 11
- Mountain Gorillas are afraid of certain reptiles
- Infants normally chase small living creatures but avoid chameleons and caterpillars
- Mountain Gorillas are also afraid of water, they will only cross a river if they can do it without getting any part of their body wet
- They switch nests every night
- Eastern and western gorillas have different strains of malaria

Peytie

Thanks to a fabulous suggestion by Madison (in my afternoon class), our students voted to name our bearded dragon PEYTIE. Some very interesting name suggestions were given, e.g. "Ben and Jerry". Thankfully, I had editorial control and got to choose the five names that were voted on by the students.

Peytie is named in honor of my sweet grandson, Peyton, who passed away last December and who loved creatures, great and small.

The students raised $33 dollars which was used to buy an under-the-tank heater as well as crickets for his/her dinner (we don't know yet whether it's a boy or a girl).

Growing Green

Our garden team will soon start posting updates and pictures of the progress of our herb/butterfly garden. Stay tuned.