CASCADIA ELEMENTARY 3RD GRADE GARDEN PROGRAM
What parts of a plant do we eat? The roots, tubers, bulbs, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, and seeds! Some plants we can eat the whole darn thing, others we can only eat one part because the rest is poisonous. This week we posed these questions to the students. Bringing a few examples such as potatoes, squash, lettuce, asparagus, onions, and celery. The students were given a worksheet with various pictures of different vegetables and fruits, and then asked to label each one with the part of the food we eat. They seemed to struggle the most with corn, not realizing it was a seed. Finally we asked them to draw their favorite fruit or vegetable and write what part of the plant it is we are eating. During this drawing and labeling activity we put on a presentation / slide show of foods and the part of the plant it was. I was surprised to find out the students amazement not knowing what part of the plant they were eating.
Tiny Trees Outdoor Preschool
Pushing, hitting, and name calling oh my! This week has been quite rowdy! Multiple times conflicts arose between the children. As I spent my usual time with the kids in their work/play time first thing in the morning, a few of the boys seemed to get on each others nerves. As we played make believe in the woods some boys picked up large sticks, and began using them as imaginary weapons. For the most part this is allowed so long as no one gets hit with the sticks and so long as the ‘bad guys’ are imaginary and not another child. Well the kids wanted to test this boundary, maybe to test if we were really serious about this rule, or maybe it simply slipped their memory. One boy got wacked! This instantly lead to the boy shoving the other one with the stick to the ground. As I rushed to break it up I was shocked at how violent they were getting. Luckily the lead educator saw this right away and was there to my rescue as I had not handled this serious of a situation before. She calmly took the two boys aside, asked them what seemed to be the problem. With only a few tears shed the boys both apologized to one another and seemed to be happy as little clams, later hugging and calling each other best friends. As this conflict was resolved, the next day another conflict arose between two other boys, totally separate from yesterdays fiasco. These two boys were playing in the building blocks area, each were working on different projects, totally oblivious to one another. That is until one of them stepped on the others project. “Idiot!” the boy yelled as his blocks fell over. “You are the IDIOT!” the other boy responded. As I approached the situation, the first boy just had to get in one “fucking idiot!” Oh man, I did not even know that was apart of a three year old’s vocabulary. It came out like venom, but the other boy really didn’t seem to be phased by this foul language, clearly the boy didn’t even know what that word meant. I got down between the boys on their level, calmly asking what seemed to be the problem here, trying to imitate the lead educator and her handling of yesterday’s conflict. We talked it out a little bit the three of us did, and luckily the lead educator again came to aid me. She was able to help negotiate an understanding between the boys. A little shocked and embarrassed that that had just happened on my watch the lead teacher shrugged it off and assured me I handled it well. She said she would send me an email on the steps they teach to appropriately handle conflict and resolution, but that I pretty much was on the right track. No one was seriously harmed emotionally or physically this week, it was more stressful for me than it was for them I think…
TILTH ALLIANCE GARDEN EDUCATOR WORKSHOP
“Grow”
Ahh walking up to this Tilth educator workshop, my nerves are more calm. I feel like I may contribute something more than the last workshop, with a bit more experience under my belt. Sure this is a training, but I am excited to share what I have learned in my internship and volunteer experience, as these teachers here have many years experience under their belts. Again I am about the youngest participant, but this time I notice something more, I am one of two men. I have noticed this more and more, in classes of education, workshops, public speakings about early and elementary education that the audience mostly is women. I am so happy to see these women too, but find it strikingly odd to be of drastic minority. This raises a few questions in my mind.. Am I completely unaware as a white man that I am a majority in a room? Why does there appear to be a stigma around men being an early child educator? How do I, as a future educator, promote acknowledgment of discrimination and biases? Is it even appropriate that I feel more men should be early educators too, when women are so little represented in other fields?
As for the workshop I took a lot away. We covered fundraising, volunteer recruitment, community engagement, how the school year and garden year clash and support one another, how to be an effective garden coordinator, how to develop a lesson plan, and how to connect classroom studies with the garden. Overall it was a full day of lectures, group work, and a little garden activity.
We started out the day with a wonderful stretch it goes something like this…
Life Cycle Stretch
First imagine you are a seed, crouch down and curl yourself in a ball.
You are full of energy, waiting for the time and conditions to be right.
Feeling the soil warm around you, you begin to sprout little roots.
Poking your fingers out from your curled position, drink up the water and nutrients.
Begin to sprout and stand upwards as a stem emerges from the seed.
Place your hands on your hips as your first leaves, cotyledons, open up.
Raise your hands over your head, making a circle with your arms, this is your flower, ready to be pollinated.
Bring the circle down in front of you, you have been pollinated, and this is your fruit hanging before you.
As your fruit is eaten or decayed, drop it’s seeds to the ground.
Repeat, as the life cycle does.
We were lead in this stretch as a calming way to begin the day but it could also be encouraged to be done fast to get out children’s jitters!
Our garden activity was quite fun, the class broke into different groups, I broke into the group that was to set up a bean teepee. It was huge, maybe 10-15 feet tall! We used bamboo, lashed it together with cut up shirts and old rubber bike tire tubes. Then as an entire class we planted Scarlet Runner Beans, that will climb to the top and make a wonderful shaded hangout for children at Tilth summer camps!
Finally we ended the day by creating lesson plans. Breaking into groups by age groups we are or hope to teach, I joined the preschool group. The prompt was water. First we asked ourselves; What makes an equitable lesson? How will it be engaging for the students? Does it have clear learning goals and expectations? Who is and who is not represented? Does the lesson have a clear and strong beginning, middle, and end?
We came up with a simple but relevant lesson for preschoolers regarding water.
Objective: Water the garden
Students will be able to: Water the appropriate amount, not to over or under water the plants. Develop their motor skills through proper handling techniques of a watering can.
Questions: Why water the garden? How do we water the garden? When do we water the garden? What do we water? What do we water with?
Materials: A garden, water, straw, cup, watering cans
Intro: Discuss the importance of water. Why do we drink water? Lets drink some water ourselves to demonstrate the importance of water to all life.
Middle: Be shown how to use a watering can, and how much is an appropriate amount. Allow students to water the plants.
End: What will happen now that we watered the plants?
Assessment: Were the plants watered?
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