Garden-based Education Program Update: October 2009

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K-5 Garden Based Learning:
Second graders made a delicious six plant-part salad from the garden!  Students also enjoyed harvesting tomatoes, carrots, and nasturtiums for the salad.  Many of the kids wanted seconds, and a few licked their plates, exclaiming this was the best salad they had ever tasted.

This month, the third grade students created a spectrum of healthy foods.  First they drew a colorful rainbow on poster board, then added drawings of fruits and vegetables from our garden that represented each color of the rainbow.  The students also added drawings of their favorite fruits and vegetables that were not currently growing in the garden to each color of the rainbow.  The result was a beautiful art project and a reminder to eat all foods of all colors for good health.

The fifth graders have been learning about digestion during their last few lessons.  Activities included making digestion diagrams by placing different colored beans on a human digestion model on paper to identify the different parts of the digestive system.  In addition, the students dissected owl pellets and discovered many different types of bones.  This way, they learned about the variety of prey that the barn owl eats. 

Clifford Elementary
In the past month, students learned about the six plant parts by doing a stem experiment, a scavenger hunt in the garden, and also enjoyed a six plant-part salad. 

This week, the students are learning about seed anatomy by dissecting lima beans to learn about the different parts of a seed.  They also investigated a variety of seeds growing in the garden and categorized them based on their size and texture.  After planting some winter vegetables seeds in paper pots students enjoyed a healthy snack of sunflower and pumpkin seeds.

Garden Club
We couldn’t resist harvesting big bushels of basil to make a delicious pesto.  All of the students helped make the pesto and we enjoyed it atop whole wheat pasta with cherry tomatoes.  For dessert we harvested an incredibly sweet Moon and Stars watermelon.  It was the first time any of us had ever tasted one! A Moon and Stars watermelon has a dark green rind with tiny yellow dots (the stars) surrounding one or more large yellow spots (the moon). The students have been on winter break for the past 2 weeks, so we are looking forward to resuming Garden Club this week.

Earth Club
The Earth Club students also learned about the benefits of eating a rainbow of colors, and created an adorable rainbow book as part of their lesson.  Students also created bouquets of their favorite flowers, cut from our very own garden, to take home with them.  This week, we were delighted to discover more strawberries in the garden and we harvested some for all to enjoy.   The students helped to harvest the remaining cucumbers as well, and pulled the old plants out to get the bed ready for some new seedlings.

Middle and High School Garden-Based Learning:

49ers Academy
Middle School students in the Green Club after school program continue to plant flowers, onions, cabbage, lettuce and other fall crops while also cooking up delicious and nutritious meals.  This month they have continued learning about whole grains while preparing whole wheat pasta to go with homemade pesto as well as a layered taco salad with blue corn chips, adapted from a recipe in the San Francisco Chronicle.

EPACS Middle School Elective
As the new quarter begins, a new class of gardeners starts this week at EPACS.  Students don’t mind the rain and are eager to get outside!  They are keeping dry with seeding projects in the greenhouse.  Take their advice—it’s a great time to start some lettuce, chard, spinach and collards.  See Common Ground’s online Planting Calendar for more ideas: http://www.commongroundinpaloalto.org/plantingcalendar.htm.

College Track
High school students from College Track harvested huge collard greens from the EPACS garden to make Bryant Terry’s recipe for Citrus Collards with Raisins, adapted from his book with Anna Lappé, Grub.  Click here for the recipe.  Collard greens are nutritional superstars and grow great into the cold weather!