Let's Dig In! Back to School

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Mud Painting

1. Reserve some soil (clay soil works best) from your soil profile activity.

2. Keep mixtures down to two colors per project.

3. To avoid extra dirty hands, mix the soil and paint mixture with a stick.
4. Give Students a small piece of paper for their work area. Start by laying down a base color, and then, add your design.

5. Let your project dry.

How to Make a Compost Sandwich

The activity helps students remember what to put in the compost bin.

Begin with an accordion book:

1. Fold the paper in half.

2. Take the top layer of paper, flip the edge back to meet the fold, and crease.

3. Turn the paper over, flip the edge of the paper back to meet the fold, and crease.

Decorate the outside like slices of bread.

Fill the inside of the accordion book with brown stuff, green stuff, air, and water (oops- this book has soil instead of air).

Classroom Management

Hello Instructors,
I wanted to introduce you to the Urban Harvest After School Blog, and write a few words about classroom management.

1. Get off to a good start.The first "honeymoon" encounter between the teacher and the students is when they formulate their impressions of the teacher. Students sit quietly, raise their hands to respond and are generally well behaved. The teacher is easily misled into thinking that this is an ideal class and may relax their vigilance. It is during this period that the effective teacher will establish the expected ground-rules for classroom behavior.

2. Learning School Policies.Prior to meeting the class for the first time, the teacher should become familiar with school policies concerning acceptable student behavior and disciplinary procedures. The teacher should definitely know what the school expects from both student and teacher in regard to discipline.

3. Establishing Rules.Establish a set of classroom rules to guide the behavior of students at once. Discuss the rationale of these rules with the students to ensure they understand and see the need for each rule. Keep the list of rules short. (Establish an clear reward and punishment process. This will keep disruptive behavior from taking too much time away from your lesson.)

4. Overplaning Lessons."Overplan" the lessons for the first week or two. It is important for the teacher to impress on the students from the outset that he or she is organized. (If you don't provide clear direction and activities for your students, they will come up with their own activities- and you probably won't be happy with the results.)

5. Learning Names. Calling a student by his or her name early in the year gives the student an increased sense of well being. It also gives a teacher greater control of situations. "JOHN, stop talking and finish your work" is more effective than "Let us stop talking and finish our work". (Becky Blanton lent me a book entitled The Morning Meeting Book that bases its practices on the early childhood model of beginning each day with circle time. During this time students greet each other by name and share an idea, like "what would it be like if you went through a metamorphosis?" or "what do you think a decomposers does?" This practice focuses the class, establishes procedure, helps the teacher learn names, and acknowledges the social and emotional needs of the student).

6. Be Firm and Consistent.A teacher can be firm yet still be supportive and friendly with students. A firm teacher can provide an environment where the students feel safe and secure. Many teachers report that it is easier to begin the year in a firm manner and relax later, than to begin in a lax manner and then try to become firm.

Watermelon excitement

Today I was at Durkee working in the garden with one of our volunteers and we were able to harvest our first watermelon. Since there was only one we cut it in half so we could each take some home. As I was walking through the school to leave I was mobbed by a bunch of 4th grade students (this was just after lunch). A few had been in my class last year and so were saying hi, but then they saw the watermelon and holy cow were they excited. They had tons of questions. "Why is it yellow?" " Can I smell it" "Can I have some of the seeds to grow my own?" "Did you really grow this at school?" "I'm going to be in gardening after-school, can I come everyday?" "Are there more watermelons?" "Can we go see the watermelon in the garden?" This went on for about 15 minutes. It was such a neat experience to see so many students excited about the garden and I think I may have very big classes this year. Which is a good thing!

Green Tomatoes and Sweet Potatoes

Yesterday my class discovered that some of our tomatoes are ready to eat. Of course they got a little carried away and harvested some that were still a bit green. So we had a taste test. The overwhelming result was that green tomatoes taste"yucky and gross" and the ripe red tomatoes taste "yummy." Perhaps we won't "accidently" harvest anymore green tomatoes.

We also planted our sweet potato slips yesterday. It took the entire class period but we did take a break halfway through to play "Gardener Says" exactly the same as Simon says but a good way to help kids learn to listen carefully and good practice for "Gardener (student name)" to practice speaking clearly in front of a group. My gardeners had fun with the game but were thrilled when the day was over because they all agreed that preparing the sweet potato bed is hard work, especially because our bed edges keep falling over.

On Thursday we will be tasting sweet potatoes since many of my students will not be around next fall when we harvest. I hope to have some pictures of our tasting. I will post them if all goes well.


Happy Planting
Becky

Pineapple at Durkee

Just had to share the current excitement at our school. We planted a pineapple top in the garden 3 1/2 years ago. This spring it started grow a pineapple--finally!

Here are some pictures:

This one was taken 3/5/08

This one was taken 3/27/09

This one was taken 4/22/08--notice the pup growing below and to the left of the pineapple.

Garden Salad

Yesterday, the students at Port Houston made a salad from the vegetables that they had grown. Each of them gathered pieces for the salad, so that they all got first-hand experience. Everyone had their own paper bag to gather material in. One student commented that "it's like we are grocery shopping in the garden. Right outside!" They loved eating the fresh greens.

They learned:
- How to tell when lettuce, carrots, and broccoli are getting ripe
- That insects live in the plants that they are harvesting, but that we can all coexist.
- How to clean fresh produce.
- How to prepare a fresh salad
- That a little bit of some herbs goes a long way, and to use them sparingly.

Sesame Greens

2 lbs greens (collards, mustard, chard, kale--whatever you've got)
1/4 c olive oil
4 cloves garlic minced
Braggs or Nama Soyu to taste
1 lime squeezed or more if you like
1 teaspoon ginger minced
sesame seeds to taste
sea salt to taste

Wash greens and remove tough stems. Tear leaves into bite sized pieces. Whisk remaining ingredients together. Toss greens in marinade. Let sit 1 hour to "marry" the flavors.
Add-ons: sunflower seeds, peas, cranberries, pecans

cabbage recipes the kids loved!

happy new year all . . . yesterday we harvested our first cabbage at Garden Oaks (i'll post photos when i get them). the kids were extremely excited! the cabbage weighed about 2-1/2 lbs. and was 22 inches in circumference. 

after the harvest, we prepared the following two recipes that the kids really enjoyed! FYI . . . the recipe with the fruit should be prepared at the beginning of class (if possible) and then eaten after about an hour to give the cabbage a bit more time to marinate.

happy gardening!

irene :)

Patterson Elementary: New Garden 2008

This is my first blog post... I haven't had the opportunity to say how proud I am to be a part of such a great group of people. Each and everyone of you have so much to offer and I want to thank you for sharing.

Last semester, I had the honor of building a new garden at Patterson Elementary. The kids and I had so much fun building the foundation of a humble garden that will be teaching us so much for years to come. Above are some picture of the day we began the garden.

I'm so excited and can't wait to get back and begin planting with the kids. This year I'm hoping to learn something from all of you. I will also be check this blog more often and add entrees.

I wish everyone a great year full of enlightenment and health. Hope to see all of you soon.

Peace

Pickled Beets

I adapted this recipe from one I found my Ball Blue Book of Preserving (p85) "Spicy Pickled Beets"

Ingredients:
4 lbs Beets 1-1 1/2 inches in diameter (or you can cut them down to size in slices or chunks)
3 cups thinly sliced onions (optional)
2 cups sugar (or less if you like)
3 sticks cinnamon, broken
1 tablespoon mustard seed
1 teaspoon whole allspice (1/2 teaspoon ground)
1 teaspoon whole cloves (1/2 teaspoon ground)
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups cider vinegar
1 1/2 cups water

Wash beets, leave 2 inches of stem and the tap root intact. Put beets in a large sauce pot and cover with water or roasting pan. Cook in pan until tender (either boiling or roasting at 350F). Drain (if boiling). Remove peel; trim ends. Combine remaining ingredients in a large saucepot. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes. Add beets and cook until hot throughout. Remove cinnamon sticks (or leave in if you like). Pack hot beets into hot jars (that have been steralized) leaving 1/4 inch headspace (space between top of contents and top of jar). Ladle hot liquid over beets, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Remove air bubbls (slide a knife down along the sides of the jar to let the air out). Adjust lids (if processing use canning jars with 2 piece lids, otherwise you can use any jars you have collected). Either process 30 minutes in a boiling water canner or refridgerate for up to 8 weeks. Will be ready to eat in a few days.

Caution--this juice will stain so if making it with students make sure they are wearing aprons or some other covering.

Dill Pickle recipe

Ingredients:
4 lbs cucumbers (makes about 7 pints)
3 cups white or cider vinegar
3 cups water
1/3 cup pickling salt (must be pickling salt or bad things happen to your pickles)
12 peeled, sliced garlic cloves
21 peppercorns
7 dill heads or 14 tablespoons dill seed

Directions:

1. Wash cucumbers and cut into spears.
2. Combine vinegar, water and pickling salt and heat to boiling. Add garlic
3. Pack cucumbers into steralized jars.
4. Add 3 peppercorns and 2 tablespoons dill seed or 1 dill head to each jar.
5. Fill jars with the hot pickling mixture. Leaving 1/2 inch headroom (space between the top of the liquid and the top of the jar)
6. Adjust lids. If processing, place in boiling waterbath for 20 minutes for quarts. complete seals if necessary If not processing place in refridgerator, will keep for up to 8 weeks.

Fruit Salad Upset Game

Game set-up
1.Choose five fruits (for a class of about 25 you can use more or less depending on the number of students you have).
2. Have the students sit in a circle in chairs preferably but you can use differnt locations if you are doing this game outside with a set number of students per location.
3. Assign each student a fruit --they must remember the fruit they are assigned.

Game play
1. Call out one of the fruits. All students assigned that fruit must get up and find a new spot to sit or move from their location to another that has space. (no one is ever out this game is just about learning terms, observation and movement)
2. After calling individual fruits for a little while call out "Fruit Salad" when the students hear this they all need to get up and find a new spot or location. This WILL result in mass chaos don't be alarmed that should happen. Continue calling individual fruits with the occassional salad thrown in until you can't take it any more or it is time to move on to another activity. Be warned this will make the students a bit wound up but given enough space to run it may tire them out too.

Variations:

• Erosion: Use Soil terms-(Sand, clay, silt, humus, rocks, pebbles, etc). Call "Erosion" to make all students move.
• Stir-fry-Use veggies (carrot, turnip, bok choy, etc). Call "Stir-fry" to make everyone move.
• Storm-Use plant parts (seed, roots, stem, etc or weather terms-rain, flood, snow, sleet, wind, thunder, cirrus cloud, etc). Call "Storm" to make everyone move
• Bug Zapper or Insectory-use insect terms (head, abdomen, thorax, compound eye or insect names-stink bug, ladybug, lacewing, cucumber beetle, etc). Call "Bug Zapper" or "Insectory" to make everyone move.
• Potpourri-use herb or edible flower names (rosemary, lavender, parsley, nasturtium, calendula, etc). Call "potpourri" to make everyone move

I am sure there are more variations that can be done. Let me know if you think of one.

Lemongrass

Hi Everyone,
I've got a huge clump of lemongrass at home that needs dividing. I will start clumps for your school if you want one. Please let me know so I can have them ready for the Feb. meeting (plant in March). Just send me an email rblantond@yahoo.com to let me know if you want some by Jan 31.
Becky

Site Visits

Cooking Demo at Durkee Elementary.
November 6, 2007










Hello All,
I am going to try and visit these schools in before Thanksgiving week.
Durkee
wharton
Janowski
Port Houston
Whittier
Dodson- Nov 14th Community Workday with afterschool students!
Harvard
Browning

Michael is covering the rest- Chavez Cluster (What is the Chavez Cluster? Rucker Elementary, Park Place, Davila, and Patterson) & Remaining South Schools.

Completed Durkee site visit with Becky. Students harvested herbs from the garden and prepared the herb dip. Teo named it 'leaf dip'. Students also enjoyed delicious tangerines from a local garden and sweet potato chips Becky made from a sweet potato students found in the compost!

On Wed with Fred at Wharton, Students planted carrots. They have all beds dug up from sweet potato harvest. Students dug and pulled out remaining weeds.

It is still pretty hot and dry outthere.Try to get in the watering and really soaking your beds on the days that you meet.

Any stories on solutions to help with watering?

Here They Are...

Hello Again! Here are some simple sweet potato and carrot suggestions, both of which also use citrus and sunflower or pumpkin seeds, roasted, seasoned, sweetened, salted, plain, or raw. Delectable Lemon Sweet Potatoes Bake sweet potatoes in a toaster oven or microwave with olive oil or butter rubbed lightly into the skin. If you do not have a toaster oven at your school, you can use a hot plate and skillet. In the latter case, chop and sautee sweet potatoes in oil or butter. Add the following to your sweet spuds: Fresh squeezed citrus juice (lemon or orange, grapefruit is more bitter) Pad of butter or teaspoon olive oil Pinch of Salt Handful of Sunflower or Pumpkin Seeds Serve and Enjoy! Rainbow Carrot Salad Shredded or Julienned Carrots Thin-Sliced Radishes Thin-Sliced Apples (green, red, golden, or a mix) Shreds of red Cabbage (optional) Handful of Seeds Pinch of Salt Fresh-squeezed Citrus Bit of Honey (optional) Depending on the age of the students, time alotted, and equipment available, you can choose either to prep the foods independently or as a class. Here are some links to more complex Sweet Potato recipes: www.grouprecipes.com/2078/sweet-potato-casserole.html www.grouprecipes.com/21814/mashed-sweet-potatoes-with-dried-apples.com Hope you enjoy! Amber

Recipe Resource

Hello All,

I have some wonderful sweet potato and carrot recipes to be posted later on in the week. Another great resource for fresh garden recipes is www.recipe4success.org. Once you arrive on the website, go to The Dish and click recipes under Topics. All of these recipes are adapted for use in 1 hr of time, with multiple beginner level tasks ideal for children. Thanks:) Amber

sweet potato harvest

hi all, how is everyone's sweet potato harvest this year? the Garden Oaks harvest was miniscule (a handful of very small potatoes)! :o