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A garden treat for your JMG Kids @: Westside Clover Kids Oakland, Iowa Palm Desert Charter Middle School Youth on the Move Palm Desert, California Las Yescas Lizards Rio Hondo, Texas Urban Indogo Youth Gardeners     Savanna, Georgia *and JMG News Subscriber Darlene "dgb624" in Louisiana Each month we'll select a few registered JMG groups and a JMG News subscriber to receive a free, cool item. This month's treat: 50 JMG Tattoos! Back to School JMG Group Registration The fall marks the beginning of a new year in the JMG program. Now is the time to register your new and re-register your existing JMG Groups. There no cost to registering your group and registration entitles you and your kids to the following benefits: Youth will be eligible for certification and other recognition  You can receive free monthly newsletter Allows you to apply for state and national JMG awards and contests Make your group eligible for winning monthly garden treat give-aways book review: I Love Dirt! 52 Project to Help You and Your Kids Discover the Wonders of Nature by Jennifer Ward  Susie Ghahremani, illus     Calling all parents and teachers; let’s get the kids out the door and into nature!  There is no better way to make sure we leave the world in good hands than helping today’s children appreciate all of the wonders of the outdoors.  With a forward written by Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods (another book all parents should read so you become aware of how important it is for children to love the natural world early in life.) I love dirt! Is a fantastic new book that provides parents and teachers with fun, active participation activities---52 of them!---Each activity is explained along with ideas for teaching that nature appreciation concepts by doing them: digging in the dirt, looking for ladybugs, skipping rocks…all for encouraging a love of nature.  Another is “Time Out”, which involves relaxing outside for a story time by selecting a nice wildlife story from the library and then reading it outside would make it all the more meaningful. Perhaps we should all take a “time out” away from the technology of the world and enjoy nature! review by Dr. Claudia McVicker, JMG Garden Librarian   For more information on good books to connect to gardening, check out the award-winning JMG curriculum, Literature in the Garden   introducing... Suck-A-Bug Kits* The National Junior Master Gardener Program is developing a classroom kit that includes the materials needed for your students to make a set of insect aspirators!  The kit contain the supplies for 25 students, an accompanying lesson, and a reproducible worksheet that will guide your students to collect their specimens in a Mini Insect Collection! Pilot classrooms are needed to test and provide feedback on the new Suck-A-Bug Kits. If you are a leader of a registered JMG group and are interested in trying out the new kit, send an email titled "Suck-A-Bug"  to: programinfo@jmgkids.us Provide your name, city, state, and grade level of kids your work with. We will contact you if your class is selected! *Only registered JMG Groups are eligible to take part in piloting the Suck-A-Bug and future kits. To download a registration form for you 2008-2009 JMG group, click here. National Junior Master Gardener Awards Program 2009 International Master Gardener Conference The JMG program and International Master Gardener Conference is calling for your nominations of outstanding Junior Master Gardener youths and groups. One youth and one group will be selected as a national award winner for exemplifying excellence through their hard work, personal achievement and service to their community. Each award includes a travel stipend to attend the awards program at the 2009 International Master Gardener Conference. Click for more information and awards application.

Get Ready for Next Month's JMG Plant Parts Canned Food Drive Thanksgiving is just around the corner. Why not combine your students' learning and CAN do enthusiasm with a true service-learning project? Share this with your students, have them begin thinking about how they can host a Plant Parts Canned Food Drive at your campus or in your community! Click here for a preview of next month's service learning project. October Featured Kid Writer:   Benjamin P. Denton, Texas A couple weeks ago our class opened a time capsule buried at our school over 100 years ago. Inside was a packet of seeds with a mysterious message handwritten on the front. The message said, “This tree you’re looking at had been alive for over 100 years when we found a time capsule buried beside it.  We decided to write another message to you reading this sometime in the future. Along with this note we added apple tree seeds, orange tree seeds, tomato seeds, and lastly we left you rose seeds. When you plant these remember how God created the earth. Have you ever thought that maybe the people who buried this time capsule 100 years ago found one just like it? Bury a time capsule like this one to carry your own message to people of the future. Then this tree will be ancient. Use these seeds to decorate this garden and make the tree happy with more plants. wanted: kid writers Is you class or group beginning a fall garden? Tell us what your planting, how you are planting it, and why you are planting it!  We'll include JMGers writings in newsletters over the next few months. Send submissions to programinfo@jmgkids.us   Purdue University Extension and Indiana Health Department sponsor "Eat Your Way to Better Health" program implementing The JMG Health and Nutrition from the Garden curriculum. "Eat Your Way to Better Health is designed to help kids increase their consumption of fruits and vegetables and teach them proper nutrition habits at a young age," said Laura Palmer, Purdue foods and nutrition specialist and registered dietitian. "The curriculum we're using is the Jr. Master Gardener curriculum, which not only meets state education standards, but also teaches kids about nutrition from the garden," Palmer said. For more information, click here. Junior Master Gardeners Get Close to the Earth Boise, Idaho   On the edge of a dusty parking lot in the Boise Foothills, a group of kids has reclaimed a bit of paradise. Sunflowers bend their wide, yellow heads toward the creeping vines of tomatoes, pumpkins and watermelons. Bees hum in the space between a living braid of corn, squash and beans, which the children call "The Three Sisters" in honor of Native American agricultural tradition. These developing green thumbs are the core of the Junior Garden Club that started last year at Boise's Foothills Learning Center. With the support of their parents, community sponsors and several skilled volunteers, they and a handful of other children have become stewards of an organic, water-wise garden that is feeding their families and teaching them about the vital connection between human beings and food. For more information, click here. Sign the "Green Hour" Petiton to the Surgeon General The National Wildlife Federation is seeking your partnership and support for a petition urging the Surgeon General to issue an official "call to action" to help reverse the problem of nature deficit. Click here to sign the petiton. In the past 20 years, the amount of time kids spend outside has dropped by 50%. This troubling reality means that most children are growing up indoors and short of regular opportunities for unstructured play in natural settings. An indoor childhood is a major contributor to some of the most pressing children’s health issues of the 21st century—childhood obesity, mood and anxiety disorders, lower creativity, and diminished problem-solving skills. We believe, and research supports, that children should have unstructured outdoor play in natural settings to be more physically active, creative, and well-balanced. Click here to sign the petiton. Click the banner below to learn more about the NWF Green Hour® garden grant watch: 2008 Healthy Sprouts Awards Deadline: October 15, 2008 2009 Youth Garden Grants Deadline: November 1, 2008 Love Your Veggies™ Grant Deadline: November 1, 2008 Why did the gardener plant his money?  He wanted the soil to be rich!  :)

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