1st Grade 2020-2021

WEEK 14: THE RADISH THING IN THE GARDEN

Why is it that some people like radishes and others don't? What is there to like about a radish? Are all radishes the same? For those in person the last day at garden we will be tasting radishes and discussing some ways to serve this versitile brassica!

Radishes grow pretty quickly -- when people ask me what can I plant from seed and eat in a month- I say RADISH. We planted some at Birney about a month ago and they are ready -- but because there is not enough to share with everyone, I also picked up some from my farmer friends at JRs Farm CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO

Rad Radish Recipes?

  • roasted

  • fried

  • made into a spread

And don't skip the tops -- they are good in salad, eggs, soups!

Recipes here: https://www.thekitchn.com/radish-recipes-267453

What do you think?

CLICK HERE to share your family"s radish recipe or another way you have enjoyed vegetables in the Birney Recipe Book! Let me know any feedback about this recipe on FLIPGRID


WEEK 13: MONARCHS IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD

This week (May 17-21) is Run For The Green. That means many of us will be running around even at school during garden class. However -- don't miss those beautiful critters that are FLYING around you! Sighted at Birney are several Monarchs - some in caterpillar form, some in crysalis form and of course the glorious butterflies - found eating, or enjoying the company of another Monarch. If you are a zoomie - and looking for something to do -- I invite you to take some walks and notice now many you see.

Want to learn more about the Monarchs? Here are a few good resource books, links are to Amazon but you can likely find them at the Library once it’s open again, or maybe via an online e-reader:

  • Monarch Butterfly by Gail Gibbons is a lovely illustrated book explaining the life cycle of the butterfly.

  • How To Raise Monarch Butterflies by Carol Pasternak is full of beautiful photos and details about the life cycle and migration of the Monarchs.

  • *Please note: we recommend keeping milkweed outdoors and observing caterpillars outside as well, instead of bringing the caterpillars inside as shown in the book(s).

  • Click here to learn a fun song about the Monarch migration, or click here to see it in Spanish! You can also print and color this page, or draw and color your own Monarch butterfly. MONARCH MAGIC COLORING SHEET MONARCH MAKING A CHRYSALIS

Have anything to share about Monarchs? Questions? Leave me a FLIPGRID: MONARCH FLIPGRID


WEEK 12: BACK TO BASICS -- COMPOSTING:

Students at school are helping to get the garden ready for summer crops -- which we usually would have done in February and March. This last year is different. We adjust! That is what nature does -- ADAPT.

SOIL is the focus of organic gardening -- especially here in this San Diego climate where we always have some amount of sunshine, the temperatures are mild, so we can grow ALL YEAR LONG. If we build our soil with COMPOST - our soil gives more nutrients to plants and ALSO helps the ground hold the water. Good compost makes soil like a sponge -soaking up and holding on to the water! This week is INTERNATIONAL COMPOST AWARENESS WEEK Check out the poster to the right that a high school student made!

You are invited to do the following projects this week:

ALSO

  • Harvest of the month for April (and the beginning of MAY) is LOQUATS. Garden Webpage info here: Loquat Info Help our Birney Family find the LOQUATS in your neighborhood! Put the nearest address into this this google form: LOQUAT LOCATOR FORM and I will help map it - check back to see the LOQUAT LOCATOR MAP!

WEEK 11: FIRST GARDEN LESSON SINCE SPRING BREAK

How are you doing? Have you been doing any gardening or looking out for things in nature?

Here are a few things I encourage you to keep your eye out for:

  • LOQUATS - You can read more about this month's HARVEST OF THE MONTH at Birney: CLICK HERE They are ripening all over. See how close to where you live you can find LOQUATS!

  • Monarch Butterflies are about. If you see butterflies, there are likely caterpillars about. Do you know which plant to look on? MILKWEED

  • For gardeners and farmers summer crops should be in the ground. Would you like to plant some more of our Brassica family for the summer? More radishes or perhaps you have space for CABBAGE or Brussel Sprout? Let me know if I can help you get some seeds. We are going to continue to explore RADISHES -- especially some interesting varieties: DAIKON and WATERMELON

  • STANDBY for Ms. Mindy's OFFICE HOURS coming soon!!

WEEK 10: COOKING WITH MS. MINDY AND..."EATIN' WEEDS" DANCE PARTY --

This week we are going to make "Pesto" with Nasturtiums. Pesto is traditionally made with Basil and Cheese -- but there are SOOOO many ways to make a pesto 0R sauce with greens.

Here is the basic recipe we made courtesy of "food geek":

Ingredients

  • 50 large nasturtium leaves or twice as many if small

  • ¼ cup pistachios or favorite nut

  • ½ cup olive oil

  • ½ cup Parmesan cheese

  • 1 pinch red pepper optional

  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  1. Wash the nasturtium leaves and shake them dry (they can be slightly wet).

  2. Toast the nuts (it intensifies their flavor and I love it) - put them in a dry pan over medium heat, stirring every 30 seconds or so. Cook for 2-3 minutes - until they start to smell good. Then take them off the heat, or they will burn (fast!)

  3. Fill your food processor up ¾ of the way, loosely, with leaves. Blend until they are chopped. Add more leaves, blend. Continue this until all of the leaves are blended up.

  4. Add in the pistachios and blend until finely chopped.

  5. Add in the cheese, red pepper and half the oil. Blend.

  6. Add more oil until it's the desired consistency. This will highly depend on how much nasturtium you used.

  7. Taste. Add salt, black pepper, more nuts or more cheese until you like how it tastes.


WEEK 9: THE REASON FOR A FLOWER

Flowers are beautiful -- -and they are just now starting to pop out around us --- the cherry blossom festival kicks the party off. But WHY FLOWERS? Because that is how we have more plants....the LIFECYCLE! Notice the flowers you see and particularly notice the Nasturtiums -- because they have really easy to see flower parts and can help us identify them..can you locate where the nectar is on a nasturtium (look at the black and white flower to the right)....Use this diagram to see the parts of the nasturtiums like we did under my microscope! To listen to the book REASON FOR A FLOWER, click HERE . For more about Nasturtiums, check out the HARVEST of the MONTH

WEEK 8: KUMQUAT MONSTER!

Going along with the book you read in class about THE NIGHT OF THE VEGGIE MONSTER - what if we got into the details of your KUMQUAT tasting and all the different components of that experience? After talking about the experiences and finding some different describing words we worked on ACROSTIC poems. Do you think a poem could encourage you to try a KUMQUAT?

Here is another book about a kid who doesn't want to eat something, but her Brother things of a creative strategy to change her mind? Do you think you could convince someone to eat something? How would you do it?

WEEK 7: WELCOME BACK TO GARDEN SPECIALS!!

On a windy rainy Monday -- welcome back to garden specials. ON Monday, January 25th, 2021 Ms. Mindy will have a paper bag of KUMQUATS and directions for you to share your KUMQUAT TASTE with others in our FLIPGRID! Directions are in the bag! If you cannot come to materials distribution Ms. Mindy will leave KUMQUATS for pickup in the office and with Ms. Leeann on the Library Cart on Wednesdays between 12-2p. Enjoy this delicious Harvest of the Month

Today we also talked about MUSHROOMS -- and how they are unique FUNGI...Can you watch for new mushrooms forming in your neighborhood and draw a picture of what you find for me?! Check out this beautiful mushroom video...do you notice other living things in this video?

WEEK 6: COOKING UP SOME BRASSICAS!

Today we made a recipe using some brassica leaves...specifically Ms. Mindy's Tree Collards. Collard greens are possibly one of the MOST nutritious brassicas you can eat and available at most grocery stores. There are so many good recipes -- but really, making them is pretty simple.

WEEK 5: THE GARDEN FOOD WEB; HONORING THE INSPIRATION OF SPIDERS!

Today we thought about our PLANT PARTS and sang our song we learned in KINDER about the 6 plant parts..CLICK HERE to sing along:

PLANT PARTS SONG

We also thought about the FOOD WEB in the garden and how all the different animals including brassica caterpillars and spiders fit into our web.

NOTICE and draw the spiders you see -- especially if you notice a cool web. Bring your spider ART to garden class in DECEMBER!

OH! And those of you who are afraid of spiders -- here is some important information about spiders you may not know:

SIX FACTS ABOUT SPIDERS

WEEK 4: BRASSICA PESTS

We aren't the only ones who LIKE to eat Brassicas! Some of you already have had trouble with some caterpillar friends eating your plant.

You have to play detective. AND you also need to remember these critters have LIFECYCLES -- they are not always caterpillars or butterflies...(remember the butterfly lifecycle?)

This week - watch around you to see those Cabbage Whites or Sulfurs -- they are the one that lay eggs on your Kale...You can observe their lifecycle -- but like a farmer -- you make a choice between kale or worm...Hard choices! If you want to spray anything here is a simple home remedy for cabbage whites and other insect pests: HOME Made Insect Spray


WEEK 3: INTRODUCING OUR PLANT FAMILY: BRASSICA!!

Some of the plants in the BRASSICA FAMILY are pictured here. Do you already eat some of these? Now we are going to learn about them from SEED to TABLE!

Ms. Mindy handed out the following at 1st Grade Distribution:

  • Two seed packets: Radish and Microgreens

  • One Kale plant

  • If you need it a gallon bucket with soil

Those of you who saw Ms. Mindy on Zoom (Room 9 and Room 5) this week -- we planted our seeds. Those of you in Room 4 and Room 10 we will go through that next week . MeanwhileyYou will need to find a place to put your kale plant that gets 6 or more hours of direct sunlight. Both your plant and your seed (seedling) will need to stay damp like a squeezed out sponge. For the seed watch for your FIRST LEAVES! They will be heart shaped leaves.

SHOW US HOW YOUR PLANT IS GROWING ON PADLET

SHARE YOUR PLANT GROWING


WEEK 2: TRASH WEEK!

In class we sorted our Trash. Do you remember? We are finding things that are:

BIODEGRADABLE! IT BREAKS DOWN!


Which of the photos below is BIODEGRADABLE?

(the other is PLASTIC -- whoa!)

-Find Biodegradable items in your life,

-Think about way to reduce/limit plastic

-& Watch out for DECOMPOSERS

WEEK 1: WHERE IS THE SUNLIGHT IN YOUR HOME?

Today in Garden Class we talked about that soon I will be giving you seeds to take home. You will be growing them in a sunny window in your house. This spot needs to have at least 6 hours a day of direct sunlight. Can you draw a map of your space and where your plants can grow?

This book by Sara Fanelli shows some good ideas for maps -- whether you make a map of LIGHT or a map of your room -- show me you have a plan! 😊


FIRST TASTE!

On our first week back at Garden Specials we usually have our FIRST TASTE of fruit from our own garden. You are invited to do this ritual at your home. We usually have garden grown Pomegranates along with garden grown apples and honey. There are few remaining pomegrantes...contact Ms. Mindy if you would like to see if we can arrange a handoff at mswanson@sandi.net

For more information about POMEGRANATES: CLICK HERE