We also continued our preparations for our shared meal during Harvest Feast. With our applesauce defrosting in the fridge, we were able to use the hand crank grinder to mill corn (which other classes turned into corn muffins) as well as shop at the Stone Soup market on Wednesday, located in the amphitheater. After perusing the choices, mushrooms were the overall top pick. Two friends carried the bowl with our bounty all the way to the Duck Pond, where we chopped on our rainy Thursday. We were so excited to share our contribution to the Randolph Stone Soup!

Here are the Ducklings' responses to our prompt:

Mia- "My mom because I love her so much."
Christopher- "Going to a place. Going to Randolph."
Clémentine- "Animals because I like them."
Ozma- "My mama because I love her."
Reni- "My grandma because we like to play games."
Forest- "That Christmas is almost here."
Thekla- "My mama when she reads me books."
Micah- "Christmas because of the lights."
Sam- "My house."
Jack- "For  water because it gives you energy."
Ozzy- "My grandpa because he reads me books."
Evan- "My grandpa and grandma because we eat apples."
Funzi- "Thankful for Christopher. We have the same hat to warm are heads."
Alaia- "Mom and Dad hug me so much."
Liora- "My mom's kisses."
Ezzie- "When my dad hugs me."
Ellington- "My laptop because I can make designs on it."
Aiden- "My mommy because she loves me."
Johannes- "My mom because she feeds me."

We have had a harvest season full of wonder, discovery, and joy! We can't wait to see what adventures await us as the weather and seasons change, and we enter the season of dormancy. We are looking forward to tucking in our maples trees and exploring how the animals and plants adapt as the months change. Have a wonderful break!

3 Sisters Succotash and Apple Cake

This time of year and the place we inhabit gives us a fruitful bounty of delicious items to use in a variety of ways. Prepping for Harvest Feast in the Neighborhood was full of chopping up ingredients, counting utensils and mixing and cooking up some tasty offerings to share with the whole school.  In the kitchen we measured, chopped and mixed all that was needed for our apple cakes. Figuring out how many cakes we would need to make for everyone to eat was a morning math challenge. We used whiteboards and unit blocks as manipulatives in order to quintuple  the ingredients to make enough for everyone at school to have a piece of cake! A lot of mathematical brain power was needed!

Here at school we use a way of gardening that Indigenious people have figured out is a beneficial way to reap a bountiful harvest. The plants and people are working together, helping one another to reach their best potential by growing strong and nourishing each other. A Haudenosaunee legend of the Three Sisters (Corn, Bean and Squash) is a story of their relationship and our inspiration to cook up a 3 Sisters Succotash for Harvest Feast. Corn grows strong and tall allowing Bean to grow upward, Squash provides shade for the roots and keeps the soil moist for them all, and Bean provides nitrogen to maintain healthy soil for growth.  Using what we grew at school and from some neighboring farms, the Neighborhood friends were hard at work chopping up the ingredients together. We also worked with our Woodpecker Buddies to recreate or retell our own versions of the 3 Sisters story which yielded a wonderful array of learning and partnership!

Preparing for Harvest Feast with Mini Muffin Math

Harvest Feast is a fun and exciting event for all who participate! As the anticipation builds throughout the weeks leading up to it, a lot of planning and preparation are underway. As soon as The Hummingbirds voted on making mini corn muffins and flavored butters, the important questions started flowing: How many people are we cooking for? How many times will we need to multiply the recipe to account for all those people? How much of each ingredient will we need?

Hummingbirds got right to work in figuring all that out! First, they worked together to use class rosters to add up how many students are in the school. Then they added on how many staff members there are. In all, they discovered there were 72 students and 17 staff members for a total of 89 people. They rounded up to 100 to cover anyone else we might have missed, and to include the student teachers that have been at Randolph the past several months. 

From there we looked at the muffin recipe. Kiddos used repeated addition and multiplication to determine we would need to make three batches of muffins to make enough. We went through each ingredient and multiplied them by 3 to figure out our final totals. Then, the week of Harvest Feast we got busy in the kitchen! 

Students followed the recipe and used fractions to measure and mix…and finally baked delicious mini corn muffins complete with Randolph grown corn and Randolph made maple syrup! And what is a muffin without some delicious butter?! Kiddos decided to make three types of butters: garlic, maple and wineberry! (Though we did discover that wineberry butter is not a thing for a reason…it was not palatable! So we stuck with what we know is good: garlic butter and maple butter.) 

In addition to our individual contribution to Harvest Feast, every group plays a role in preparing something to contribute to our big Stone Soup Pot. This year, The Hummingbirds reached into a pot and randomly selected...CARROTS! We were excited about this, as these special carrots were grown by our very own Riley and Tisha! Hummingbirds worked together to wash, peel and chop. What a joy to share these foods at our special meal together!