CASCADIA ELEMENTARY 3RD GRADE GARDEN PROGRAM

Technically I have one more week left beyond week 10 with Cascadia Elementary, but this has been a wonderful opportunity.  This week is our last meeting with Cohort A of third graders.  Our overall activity was to harvest and prep food from the garden to have a little feast.  Harvesting the bounty of the student’s year long efforts in the garden!  Unfortunately, it being a learning garden, there was not a whole lot to harvest.  We harvested some edible flowers, four lonely (but delicious) tomatoes, and some leaves of lettuce.  We supplemented our feast with store bought vegetables.  Our feast consisted of a salad made with mixed greens, tomatoes, and green onions, with a topping of honey mustard, and a side of carrots, sugar snap peas, and homemade hummus by the other garden intern Jessica.  The kids got back their seed balls they had made weeks prior and.  I also received thank you notes from the first period class, which absolutely warmed my heart.  Through the day we got many thanks, and stories from the kids telling us that this program inspired them to ask their families to start a garden at home.  Finally at the end of the day we had our most difficult class, usually they are very chatty and a little out of hand which is fairly understandable for the last period of the day.  Last class with them though they were so rambunctious that they didn’t all get the opportunity to make seed balls.  This week was no different, they kept disobeying us and their teacher, continuing to talk over lessons, and failed to get ready to leave in a timely manner.  Well this did not please their teacher nor the lead garden educator.  So they lost the privilege to take home their seed balls.  It was a really sad way to end the garden class when all the other classes were so much fun.  About ten minutes after they left garden class in silence, the whole class came back and asked to apologize.  They sat in the typical circle and explained to us that they were sorry and regretful for ending class like they did, and said that they were just a very social class and so excited for garden class that they got wild.  It was a very mature way to apologize.  Many of the students talked in turn, apologizing and explaining how valuable garden class has been to them.  It nearly made me want to cry.  Of course they got their seed balls after this, and they were so excited.  They were though sad to find out they would not have garden class the following year, and I think in that moment they realized what a privilege it was to have such a class.

Tiny Trees Outdoor Preschool

I have so enjoyed working with Tiny Trees preschoolers!  Rain and shine, it has been so exciting to be outside with kids all day.  Their imagination seems more free when in the outdoor setting.  As a volunteer at Tiny Trees I was able to get so much experience!  Conflict resolution was crucial during my time, with tiny scuffles here and there I got huge experience in how to handle toddlers.  This week was a bit more wet than it has been in the past few weeks.  Kids were a bit more sluggish, wanting to hide under the canopy and read books a little longer than usual.  This week a child who moved away, to Alaska, came back to visit their class.  His name was Kilo, and the kids were so excited for his return!  They made a big sign that said “WELCOME BACK KILO WE LOVE YOU” which was very sweet.  They colored all around the large banner while explaining how much they miss him.  Other than that it was a typical week.  We went back to the skate park for a brief time, there was a new volunteer one morning so the kids have access to so many adults!  The class ratio is about 4 kids to an adult most days now! I will continue to volunteer with Tiny Trees beyond this quarter.