AND that's a wrap for Room 1 & 4 for their first block of Garden to Table sessions!
Each class has 5 lessons then 5 more later on in the year.
The highlights of these sessions were...
* Picking pretty flowers and making posies
* Learning how to cut with a knife
* Cooking the different foods
* Planting things in the garden
* Eating the chop suey!
* Having feijoas
This term the year 3-6 students are spending time in the garden finding out what INCREDIBLE INVERTEBRATES we share the space with!
We brainstormed what we already knew (quite a lot) and jotted down what we wanted to find out...
* WHO are the bugs living in our garden and how many of them are there?
* HOW are animals grouped?
* HOW do bugs help us? (Ayla)
* WHY did some bugs come to New Zealand? (Ashlee)
* WHAT was the first bug ever on Earth? (Tyler)
We learnt:
- Spiders are NOT insects!
- Invertebrates is the science name for the big group that all our garden 'bugs' belong to.
- Without insects the planet would not be very healthy
- We have lots of different creatures in our compost...
Our Garden to Table GARDENERS have been doing a great job in the garden both composting the food scraps and collecting the new, rich compost we have made!
Our new hot composting is going really well and turning out fresh 'black gold' compost in about 2 months!
We are also adding more growing space to the gardens by creating kumara beds. We had great success growing kumara 2 years ago but, to keep healthy soil, we have planted other vegetables in that particular garden bed this year.
.jpeg)
As 2 new classes start their 6 week programme of Garden to Table, we bid a farewell to our wonderful Garden leader - Karen. She has supported our Garden to Table programme since we started in 2021! We wish her all the best for her future ventures.
Karen has set up the veggie garden areas really well so the transition for David and Olivia to take over was seamless.
The students got straight into harvesting, weeding and, of course, composting!
We have moved the compost into the 'stomach' to breakdown further. You can already see the layers breaking down!
To introduce all the classes to our new compost system, they have been making 'Compost Stew'
We started by talking about WHY we compost, how it benefits US and the environment.
We all had a look at the BLACK GOLD compost we had in a jar and the compost Room 7 and Room 8 made last year. It took over 6 months but has now turned into beautiful, rich black compost.
* GREENS (to add nitrogen)
* BROWNS (to add carbon)
* WATER
* AIR
We had 2 jars so got into 2 teams. Then we got with a buddy, we had to collect either greens or browns in an old ice cream tub.
We started by adding soil to the jar then we add greens and browns in layers;
- green , soil, brown, soil and keep going like that.
We didn't squish it down too much as it needs air. We then added water and a paper towel on the top which had an elastic band around it.
In the jar there is also FBI - Fungi, Bacteria and Insects. They are in what we took (the layers) and they will help make the compost and the level on the compost go down.
We will leave it somewhere in class where it will get sun and each week measure the compost (height and temperature).
I predict the compost stew made by our year 3's will make compost faster because it has more air and the pieces inside the jar were smaller.
By Aimee.
Over the last 6 (school) weeks Room 4 and 3 have been busy in the garden and kitchen.
They have been...
* clearing garden beds after the summer
* learning all about how to maintain our new hot compost system
* planting for autumn
When the students have been in the kitchen they have been enjoying cooking heir favourite dishes (herby breadsticks!) as well as learning new skills and recipes. Show students even commented they enjoyed washing up!
All recipes can be found HERE if you want to keep cooking and try them at home!
Need some ingredients? Talk to Miss Long if you need some herbs or greens from the garden.
Over the last few weeks we have loved watched the FIFA Soccer World Cup. Next month is another great international sports event - the Com...
