Well, it has been awhile since posting...again. But I have some good news! The gardens are built and partially planted. We created 5 3'x5'x6" beds and we placed them 2 feet apart. The lumber and the deck screws cost me about $102 from our local Home Depot. I was able to get compost from the local golf course that I work at so that didn't cost us anything!
We built the gardens on Tuesday and planted them on Wednesday. We planted little gem lettuce, Mammoth melting snow pea, bush garden beans, and radishes from seed. I learned a neat way to get the kids to measure out the proper planting distances. You need to get a roll of toilet paper and roll it out to the desired length. Once this was done, I had the partners (4th grade and older students partnered with 3rd grade and younger students) take a ruler and measure out the proper spacing. Once the students were comfortable with their measuring skills, they took a bottle of school glue and put just a tiny dab on the paper and placed the seed on top avoiding covering the entire seed with glue. We then dug small trenches, placed the seed paper in the soil and gently covered it up. The kids had a blast doing this! 
We also transplanted some plants. This year I purchased them from a local green house, but next year I hope to create a cold frame and start our own seeds! We planted sweet million tomatoes, WI 55 tomatoes, green and red peppers, several varieties of cuccumbers (one bush variety), and watermelon. We forgot to measure the height of the plants when we planted, so we will need to remember to do that Friday.
The students also started garden journals/logs. We will be keeping track of rainfall once I get a good rain gauge and high and low temperature.
Looking forward to keeping you up to date!
