Kindergarten 2020-2021


WEEK 24: CELEBRATING GARDEN TIME AND MAKING SAUCE:

Sauces can make plain food POP! And sauces are easy to make...especially if you have a blender. Experiment making your own sauces! For our last class I am going to feature PARSLEY. There are two kinds that you can usually find at the store (or the nursery!): CURLY or ITALIAN. if you don't know which one you like, taste each alone and see...I like them both but sometimes crave one or the other.

Here is a simple sauce I use a lot:

  • lemon

  • olive oil

  • parsley

  • salt & pepper

  • garlic

What do you think? CLICK HERE to share your family sauce for the Birney Recipe Book! Let me know any feedback about this recipe on FLIPGRID

WEEK 23: THE MONARCHS ARE ABOUT! CAN YOU SEE THEM IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD?

Monarch butterflies are remarkable migrators! Many students at Birney have seen the Monarchs in one or more of their stages of life: as a butterfly, caterpillar, or chrysalis. Some students have even spotted a tiny butterfly egg on the milkweed plant! You can help the Monarchs by planting some milkweed in your garden, or growing flowering plants that help to feed the adult butterflies. Watch this book. Take a walk and count how many you see. Have a report, or questions you want to share?

WEEK 22: 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 21: 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 Carrot family for the summer? Dill, carrots, parsley? Let me know if I can help you get some seeds.

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

WEEK 20: MAKING A SNACK WITH HONEY!

Two snacks I like to eat with some honey that you might want to try at home. The first is our beginning of the year treat: Apples and Honey -- it is good anytime.

Another snack requires only THREE ingredients:

  • oats (you can use cheerios!)

  • nut butter (I like peanut butter, but some people are allergic)

  • HONEY

  • (the recipe to the left adds vanilla -- but it is optional!)

If you want it to be easier to mix, you can warm up the honey and peanut butter, but it can be a fun effort mixing by hand!

Happy Spring my Birney Bees!

WEEK 19: NATIVE BEES

Native bees are different than the European or African Honeybees. These bees still are AMAZING pollinators, but they do not have stingers or form a community like a hive they are SOLITARY or SOLO BEES. Some of them like the mason bees, use mud to seal in their eggs. We sang along with the book about ZOE the SOLOBEE and learned more about native bees. Here is video you can look at with more about bees.

WEEK 18: BEES OUR AMAZING MASCOT!

"For every third bite you eat THANK the bees" -- WHAT?! Yes -- if we did not have bees, many of the food crops we LOVE to eat would not get pollinated and there would be no fruit or seeds to eat! So bees are super important! Today we thought about what might happen if we had a conversation between a bee and an earthworm? You could have fun with this puppet show at home --- Just like our different friends in our Birney community we all have important and different favorite foods and ways of doing things. It's fun to learn about different ways! If you want to watch the bee video with your family it is right here!

WEEK 16-7: EARTH WORMS đź’“ đź’“ đź’“ đź’“ đź’“

Earth worms are earth lovers with their 5 hearts -- that is why Ms. Mindy LOVES worms. They make the best soil for all plants - by making the soil beautiful with air and passages for the water to go through. Some of you shared today about how you saved earthworms who came out of the ground because the rain was too much water -- THANK YOU.


Here is our earth worm song if you want to dance to it: EARTH WORM DANCE CLICK HERE FOR SONG --- and here is a link to Ms. Mindy showing you how to set up a WORM BIN: HERE. Enjoy this relaxing time lapse of worms breaking things down into soil.


WEEK 15: TREES AND HOMES

Today we began our exploration of HABITATS! A Habitat is a HOME ! We sang a song about TREES doing our TREE poses from yoga. Show your family these poses while you listen to this great Banana Slugs Song "I'm a TREE"

Notice the trees in your neighborhood.

Imagine what it would be like to be a tree!

Can you draw what tree you would be?

WEEK 14: WEEDS IN OUR GARDEN

Weeds are plants -- plants that are good at surviving because they have special ways that they can grow and live. We listened to a story about weeds that you can listen to again here.

Then we did our Dandilion Dance! Wouldn't it be amazing to float like a Dandilion Seed?

This week watch for those plants that are good at coming up in your neighborhood!

WEEK 13: WELCOME BACK TO GARDEN CLASS 2021

As we come back to garden - we notice our seasonal produce we can enjoy - including the KUMQUAT! More info at HARVEST OF THE MONTH

If you have not tried the KUMQUATS that your teacher helped me hand out during materials pick up-- or you do not have any, go to the school office or pick up from Miss Leanne's Library Cart on Wednesdays from 12p-2p next to the lunch distribution. I will ensure that there are fresh (mostly) picked kumquats in both locations for families wanting to taste them! By the way, you can also begin to find them at the FARMERS MARKET! If you are able - share your sourface on FLIPGRID -- and go see others!

We also talked about how it is a good time to keep your eyes out for MUSHROOMS as we begin to have our winter rains....More to come on FUNGI projects!

WEEK 12: FENNEL ORANGE SALAD!!

Ingredients:

One fennel bulb (you can substitute a bunch of parsley, cilantro or dill as an alternate salad)

2 oranges

sliced purple onion

vinegar (I like rice vinegar)

olive oil

salt & pepper

Slice Fennel (or other carrot family greens) and purple onion. Put into bowl. Add orange pieces (peeled and cut into bite sized pieces). Mix with vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper! YUM!!


WEEK 11: Farm Animals

Today we thought about all the different animals on the farm and shared which was our favorite.....I even thought about sharing an animal song with you...you know that famous one about a Farmer called McDonald? But instead I decided to do a BARNYARD DANCE. If you want to dance further with Sandra Boyton's fun book -- you can use this youtube!

Next week we will be cooking! Below is the ingredients that Ms. Mindy will be demonstrating. You don't HAVE to make it with me, but you might want to have a paper to draw what we do ;) ALSO NOTE -- Fennel can be substituted with CILANTRO, DILL or PARSLEY -- all delicious Carrot Family plants!


ALSO -- Some of you wanted to see the SWEDISH CHEF again....so click on this link to see him: SWEDISH CHEF MAKING PUMPKIN PIE

And here are the ingredients we will be using when Ms. Mindy does a cooking demon next week------------------------ - pictured here >>>>>>>>

WEEK 10: TOPS AND BOTTOMS

Thinking about the different parts of the plant - which parts to we eat? How did Hare trick Bear in the story we read? You can listen to Juan from Huston read it here!

We also did our PLANT PARTS song by one of Ms. Mindy's favorite bands: The Banana Slugs.

You can see them singing it here and practice our dance we did:

ROOTS STEMS LEAVES

WEEK 9: GIVING THANKS

Today we talked about BASKETS - how the Native People -- including the folks whose land we are on now use PLANTS to weave into baskets. These baskets are made from respectful harvesting of plants and often have beautiful decorations sometimes even with stories.

We listened to a story that you can listen to again about the Cherokee word for Grateful. I am GRATEFUL for all of you! Thank you for our time today and always.

WEEK 8: FESTIVALS WITH FOOD

This week we watched the festival that celebrates YAMS -- a root crop similar to SWEET POTATOES. Communities all over the world celebrate farmers and their crops when they are ready. We thought about how there are FARMERS in SAN DIEGO -- in fact SAN DIEGO has the most small farms of any county in the nation! Farmers and FARM WORKERS help harvest the food we eat. We read some of a beautiful book by FLOR ALMA ADA about these farm workers who are GATHERING THE SUN for us. THANK YOU FARM WORKERS!

WEEK 7: PUSH AND PULL

In the garden there are lots of things that move.

Notice what you push and pull this week -- notice these motions in nature both big and small.

Also - check out the San Diego Unified Harvest of the Month PERSIMMONS from a local FARM


WEEK 6: MONARCH BUTTERFLIES!!!


Watch for MONARCHS

Notice if there is MILKWEED in your neighborhood

Take care of your PLANT!

Draw and or COLOR a monarch Butterfly Here is a good link with coloring pages: MONARCH COLORING PAGE

Hear the story of Lupita again with this read aloud: UNCLE MONARCH

WEEK 5: CARROT FAMILY

  • Has seeds that are similar shape but various sizes

  • Has ferny leaves

  • Makes a flower that looks like an UMBRELLA

  • Have distinct flavor that is often used in cooking

We read the book: THE CARROT SEED

We saved seeds from our FENNEL

We planted our FENNEL in soil....

Si se puede -- it's gonna come UP!

Make sure your plant has



WEEK 4: SEASONS mean changing shapes and colors -- eveb in SAN DIEGO -- Today we explored LEAVES. Continue to notice the colors and shapes. Maybe you can draw or make a leaf rubbing....how to make leaf rubbing here: LEAF RUBBING VIDEO

WEEK 3: COMPOST CRITTERS Stay on the lookout for these creatures that help break it down. Observe their wonderful traits and see if you can immitate these critters -- remember our dances?

Do the Rot Thing_critters.pdf

WEEK 2: TRASH WEEK! In class we sorted our Trash...do you remember our new word?

BIODEGRADABLE!

IT BREAKS DOWN

Which of the photos below is BIODEGRADABLE? (the other is PLASTIC -- whoa!)

Identify Biodegradable items in your life, think about way to reduce/limit plastic AND watch out for DECOMPOSERS

WEEK 1: WELCOME kindergardeners!

Remember the song we sang together in class? Maybe these pictures will help you remember?