The enthusiasm of the 3/4s was contagious! They love the time that they spend in the garden with garden specialist, Tash. North Melbourne's garden in entirely in containers due to poor soil quality and limited space. However, Tash has made the most of the space and the garden is abundantly producing spinach, chard, cauliflower, broccoli, beans, carrots and herbs. Today's groups spent the hour-long session harvesting, identifying plants, mulching beds, making garden are and conducting a soil pH experiment. I found that harvesting and bug hunting are two highly prized garden jobs:)
Moving into the kitchen, I spent a session with a group of 5/6s, for whom this was only their second kitchen lesson. Despite their lack of experience, they put out another fabulous meal...celery and potato soup, Mexican street salad, kasbah pastries and lemon ricotta cakes. Seriously....if I keep this up, I'm going to expect a hot lunch every day when I get back to Chicago! In the kitchen, I found myself watching for social emotional skills and found them aplenty: teamwork, cooperation, joint decision making, problem solving, listening to each other, managing time, organizing and social interaction. In just the year that the program has been implemented, kitchen specialist Cathy has created a balance that seamlessly integrates academic and social skills into the engaging context of healthy cooking. Mucho impressed!!
verygood pictures gramps
ReplyDeletedid you get grandpa online??? way cool!!
ReplyDeleteYUP, WE GOT GRANDPA SET UP. GETS HIM DOING SOMETHING DIFFERENT. HE REALLY ENJOYS THE BLOGS AND IS TRYING TO USE THE COMPUTER ON HIS OWN. I WILL SEND YOU HIS EMAIL ADDRESS TO YOUR EMAIL.
ReplyDeleteNICE PICTURES.
DAD
Mo: Do the kitchen and garden specialists get paid, or are they volunteers?
ReplyDeleteMexican street salad sounds good--what is in it? One more comment: In an earlier blog you mentioned that students use olives from their own trees. I was surprised at that because I always thought olives grew only in the Mediterranean areas, such as Italy and Greece.
Tonia
Tonia...the status of the specialists depends on each school's budget. Some are paid the salary of an assistant, some volunteer, some are paid full teacher salary (if certified). The budgets are pretty bad, so much once the original state/federal funding has run out, schools must take over. Lots of creative fundraising and donating to make the programs continue.
ReplyDeleteOlive trees...yes, surprisingly they do grow. The kids harvested and bottled a ton of the them for use throughout the year.
ReplyDeleteMexican street salad - red and green cabbage, Japanese radish, carrots, red onions and an olive oil dressing. Would be awesome as a wrap!