See an archive of activities in the Discovery Schoolyard!

 

Tuckahoe students in Troop 60192 came out last Sunday to work on their garden badge and helped with weeding, pruning, and even planted a tree. A big thank you for their service to the Tuckahoe community. 🌳 Happy spring!
 
Learn more about the Discovery Schoolyard here.
 
Signup for the next (and final!) garden workday for the school-year on Saturday, June 11 here. 
 

 

May 8, 2022

 

The tulips are in full bloom all around the schoolyard thanks to Tuckahoe’s 5th grade Green Team who planted the bulbs last fall. Last week, Pre-K students enjoyed a spring walk to explore the gardens in spring and learn about the tulips. Planting bulbs every fall is a special Tuckahoe tradition that reminds us of how much our students grow in one school year! Happy spring! 

 

 

May 2, 2022

 

Spring is the perfect time of year to recognize Margaret Egan and Andrea Kaplowitz for their leadership in managing Tuckahoe’s Discovery Schoolyard efforts. As a result of their dedication, the entire Tuckahoe community has a special place to explore nature. Students gain hands-on experiences in growing and harvesting vegetables, measuring outdoor conditions, observing wildlife, creating artwork, and more. Thank you, Ms. Egan and Ms. K!

  

Please contact Andrea Lindquist Kaplowitz Tuckahoe’s Outdoor Learning Coordinator, if you have any questions about the Discovery Schoolyard.

 

 

 

March 27, 2022

 

We want to say a big thank you to all the volunteers who came to our first garden work day on Sunday, 20 March! They helped us mulch, pick up litter, prepare the harden beds for spring, and build picnic tables.

 

Graduating 5th graders, their parents, and a few former Sliders put their carpentry skills to good use and assembled the class gift of three new picnic tables and 12 benches. This gift will give teachers space to bring an entire class outside for lunch and learning activities! Thank you, Class of 2022!

 

Please contact Andrea Lindquist Kaplowitz Tuckahoe’s Outdoor Learning Coordinator, if you have any questions about the Discovery Schoolyard.

 

 
 

 

December 10, 2021

 

The schoolyard and surrounding neighborhood support many kinds of plants, insects, and animals. One of the most noticeable is the native northern cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis). The bright red male and the brown female stay together for life and build their nest with leaves, grasses, and small twigs. We notice cardinals more often because of their flashy red feathers and because they are non-migratory birds that prefer to live within a mile of where they were born. So, those cardinals that you see in your yard year after year are probably the same ones!
 
Come spot the cardinals during our last garden work day of the season on Sunday, 12 December from 100-300 pm. Please contact Andrea Kaplowitz, Tuckahoe’s Outdoor Learning Coordinator, with any questions about the Discovery Schoolyard.
 
 

 

 

 

November 30, 2021

What’s Blooming in the Discovery Schoolyard?

 

Tuckahoe students and the crows have been enjoying lunch outside this year. Crows are very intelligent birds who can solve multi-step puzzles, recognize individual people, and have figured out that elementary school students leave behind “tasty” food scraps! The crows gather in the schoolyard trees to wait for dismissal and when everyone is gone, they come down to snack. However, potato chips, bread crusts, and plastic wrappers aren’t a healthy diet for our feathered friends. Crows should be eating insects, nuts, mice, and frogs. It’s a good reminder for all of us to leave no trace when we are outside enjoying nature. 

 

We look forward to seeing you on our final garden work day of the fall, Sunday, 12 December 2021 from 100-300 pm. We will clean up the schoolyard and prep garden beds for the winter. Please contact Andrea Kaplowitz, Tuckahoe’s Outdoor Learning Coordinator, with any questions about the Discovery Schoolyard. 

 

 


 

 

    

November 23, 2021

The Tuckahoe Green Team has been putting their green thumbs to use by planting trees and tulips. The Green Team is made up of environmentally conscious 5th graders who want to learn more about the environment and promote ideas that will help the school and their families make sustainable choices. These students learned that planting trees and perennials in the fall is a great choice for the environment because it requires less water and their roots will have time to develop in more comfortable weather. By spring, the roots will be strong enough to support robust growth without lots of water.

 

Help us prepare the Discovery Schoolyard for a beautiful spring on Sunday, December 12, 2021, from 100-300 pm, for our last garden work day this fall. Reach out to Andrea Kaplowitz, Tuckahoe’s Outdoor Learning Coordinator, with any questions about the Discovery Schoolyard.

 

 

 
 
 
 




November 18, 2021

Everyone loves to feed Tuckahoe’s 2 red-eared pond sliders, goldfish, and the sneaky mummichogs who mysteriously appeared in our pond a few years ago. The mummichogs, also known as Atlantic killifish, mummies, gudgeons, and mud minnows, worried us at first, but they have fit right into the pond community. As the temperatures drop below 50 °F, we will stop feeding the turtles and fish because they will enter a lethargic state for winter. They will rest nearly motionless at the bottom of the pond until the warm, spring weather returns in March.
 
 
 



November 11, 2021

 

November brought in sweater weather for us and the gardens are also adjusting to the change of season. Remember the blooms of the glorious, purple coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea) that attracted so many bees and butterflies this summer? Their dried seed heads are now a buffet for birds to eat throughout winter and the seeds that reach the soil will grow into new flowers in the spring. Their stalks and fallen leaves will become cozy, nesting material for invertebrates and vertebrates to keep warm in the cold. So, this week, throw on your sweater and take a walk through the gardens to see what’s not blooming and how beautiful it is! 

 

 

 

October 28, 2021

 

We are #squashfamous! The 2021 Arlington County Fair judges awarded a squash grown right here in the Discovery Schoolyard with the blue ribbon prize for largest squash! This gorgeous squash was grown with the help of our partners at Arlington Friends of Urban Agriculture.
 
Did you know that squash is native to North America? Over 8,000 years ago, humans began domesticating squash into the many varieties that we enjoy today. Our winning squash, warty gourds, zucchinis, and the orange, field pumpkins that we carve for jack-o-lanterns are all related to that ancient squash. Happy Halloween!
 
Please contact Andrea Kaplowitz (andrea.kaplowitz@apsva.us) if you have questions or want to get involved in the Discovery Schoolyard.
 

The winning squash!
 

 

 

 

October 18, 2021

 

The gardens have been abuzz with helping hands! A big thank you to all of these volunteers for their time and enthusiasm!

 

🐝 PTA volunteers, Julie Brescoll Pandya, Angela Tyson, Allison Glatfelter helped Andrea Kaplowitz assemble two, new tables that the PTA purchased for outdoor lessons and lunches.

🐝 The 5th Grade Green Team showed off their weeding skills and community spirit by pulling wheelbarrows full of invasive plants from the flower beds in the courtyard.

🐝 Families and students worked together last weekend for another successful garden work day. They cleared weeds and end-of-season plants from the side and back garden beds and removed a rotting trellis.

 

“We might think we are nurturing our garden, but, of course, it's our garden that is really nurturing us." — Jenny Uglow

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 7, 2021

Have you seen the yummy vegetables growing in the Discovery Schoolyard? We plant vegetables every year to teach students about how food grows, but when COVID safety measures prohibited us from gardening with the students, we shared Tuckahoe’s garden beds with Arlington Friends of Urban Agriculture (FOUA). FOUA volunteers donated seeds and hard work, and the bees helped, too! Over 1000 lbs of food went to local charities from our gardens. To learn more about this community partnership visit: https://arlingtonurbanag.org/press-release-school-gardens-donating-to-local-food-pantries/. Join us for the next garden work day on Sunday, 17 October. Sign up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0E4FAFAD2DA3FD0-
 

 


September 29, 2021

 

Hooray for the return of garden work days! The gardens were buzzing with bees and volunteers on Saturday, 25 September. The volunteers built a new lunch table from old benches, cleaned up the front garden, put our turtle family back under the crape myrtles, and removed a dead tree and invasive plants. Thank you to the students, their families, local scouts, and Arlington Master Naturalists for their help! For 25 years, volunteers have helped keep the Discovery Schoolyard blooming, and we’d love to have you join us for our next work day on 17 October from 1:00-3:00 PM. Gardening experience is not required and there are jobs for even the littlest helpers.
 
 
 
 

September 24, 2021

 

The weather feels like Autumn and our gardens know it’s true because they are filled with Tuckahoe students again! With lunch outdoors, the garden is filled with students enjoying nature all day long. We want to thank Tuckahoe alum, Joey Servidio, for building us beautiful, sturdy outdoor seating for his Eagle Scout service project. The benches have been a vital addition for students to use during outdoor lessons, lunches, snack time, and outdoor breaks.

 

Tuckahoe Fun Facts

Built: 1953
Year PTA Founded: 1954
Location: Arlington, VA
Principal: Mr. Dustin Barnes 
Families: 309 
Students: 444
Mascot: Slider
School Colors: Blue & Gold & Green

Tuckahoe has a weather station with real time data