YGW Updates!

Resource List!
I've been working on our resource list for youth gardening programs. I've posted a draft of the list! 
http://youthgardeningweekly.blogspot.com/p/r-e-s-o-u-r-c-e-s.html

Middle School Garden!
Here are a few pics of the garden as of one week ago! I'll be heading to the summer program this week to teach the kids about harvesting and I'll give them some recipes for using the other food they are growing, so look for a post on that!

Day Nine: Planting & Pavers

Today we had our final full session with the after-school program! It was bittersweet, because we didn't really realize it would be our last session due to the Memorial day holiday. Nevertheless, we had a ton of fun!

We....

• Planted the garden
• Made mosaic pavers
• Had a Water fight
• Made a Bean Tee-Pee!

Here are a few highlights...

Above: Raised bed kits available from Growing Hope in Ypsilanti, MI; $35
http://www.growinghope.net

Above: Miss Lisa is ready to dig!

Above: Bags of top soil purchased from local garden store. We used A LOT of bags.
In your area, you might want to check for local sources that deliver mulch, compost, and top soil.

Above: Bean Tee-Pee. Beans are planted around the base of the structure (which is bamboo lashed together with bailing twine) and as they grow, they will climb the poles. This will provide some a nice, shady spot to sit and observe the garden, or read a book!

























Above: the start of a mosaic paver stone. The idea to create these came from day three's lesson, "Sculpting Dreams," when we asked the students to come up with ideas of what we could grow by sculpting with Playdoh.

Day Seven (With Guest Teacher, Miss Lo): Composting! It's a way to Recycle!

Miss Lisa & I were out this week and the next for other obligations, so we asked Miss Lo to take over! They worked on painting signs, talked about soil health and made two raised beds!

More information & pictures to come!

Day Six (With Guest Teacher, Miss Lo): Finishing Signage & Raised Bed Kits

Miss Lisa & I were out this week and the next for other obligations, so we asked Miss Lo to take over! They worked on painting signs, talked about soil health and made two raised beds!

More information & pictures to come!

Day Five: Creating Signage

 

This week's task was to create some signage for the garden. We decided on two signs; one for compost and one for the garden itself. 

Step One: Brainstorms

• Compost Sign: We asked the kids to come up with things they thought could go in the compost and which things they thought shouldn't. We confirmed their ideas and explained as they went along. So we ended up with a list of things that can go in the compost as well as things that should stay out.
• Garden Sign: We asked them to come up with a list of veggies, fruits and flowers they could put on the sign. We also figured out what the sign should say; they decided on "Gardening Club."

Step Two: Sign Teams

• We broke up into two teams and basically worked with the kids to draw out the sign. We began painting, but ran out of time.

Reflections: 

• Kids come up with great ideas and having multi-disciplinary projects really allows some talents that may have been hidden to shine through.
• We are constantly adapting the plan for the garden and the lessons based on their input, questions, and our own experiences of what we find works and doesn't work. It's part of the story of teaching.. So often the activity you planned and prepped for hours falls flat while the crazy idea you made up on the fly ends up being the highlight of the session.
• Miss Lo (Our Sub for the next two weeks) came along with us. It was invaluable to have her there with us (not only for the extra help) but also to introduce her to the kids and to give her a chance to have integrity as another teacher. Too bad more subbing situations don't work out like that in your everyday schools... (Some schools use "in-house" subbing where other teachers fill in - seems crazy but it works!).

Day Four: Tool Time and Seed Starting Round 2

Part One: Tool Time
Today we took the opportunity to introduce our kids to the tools we will use in the garden and to articulate some  rules of thumb for using them. We had each kid choose a tool (or two) and then we went around and asked them to tell us what each tool is used for and what safety rules come to mind.

The kids came up with some great additions to our basic rules (the first three are ours). This was a good short discussion and it served as either a review or introduction to the tools we'd be using in the garden.

List of tools:
Shovel
Rake
Trowel (Hand Shovel)
Hand Rake
Tomato Cage
Watering Cans
Gloves
Twine
Wooden Stakes

Tool Rules:
1.  Only use tools for their intended purpose.
2.  Never raise tools above your hip or head (Demonstrate proper use of gardening tools)
3.  Do not throw tools.
4.  Put tools away when you are done working with them.
5.  Be aware of your surroundings.
6.  Share, take turns, and hand off.

Part Two: Seed Starting Round 2
We had a bit of a problem with our original seed starting. We forgot about spring break... thus our seeds went un-watered for a week. Needless to say, we were not able to revive them when we got back, so today, we did round two using the many egg cartons Lisa and I had lying around our houses.

The kids go really crazy for playing in the dirt and the prospect of putting a seed in soil and seeing it grow - it was a seed-starting frenzy! We brought the seeded egg cartons back to our campus greenhouse and watered them there. We will start the rest of our seed stock in the greenhouse and bring the kids seedlings to transplant into the garden. They won't get to see those seeds grow, but they will get the chance to seed seedlings pop up directly from their garden when we plant carrots, radishes, beets, beans, etc. in the raised beds.

Afterthoughts:
The sheer, unencumbered joy that flows through the kids when they are planting is astonishing. They become completely engrossed in the process and in each other. The rest of the world kind of melted away and they were totally focused on filling those egg cartons with soil and running back to me for a seed packet.

We are still learning how much autonomy each kid can handle. Most of the gardening and preparation tasks can be sorted out for differentiation. I think I'll try to identify in each lesson which tasks are high, medium, and low levels of autonomy/independence so we can more effectively delegate to each kid.

Day Three: Sculpting Dreams

What we did:
So, day three's lesson for the kids was in visualizing the garden space, thinking about what could grow there and we could place in the garden. It was very free-form; the only limitations were the sketch of the four square raised beds and their imaginations.

The goal:
The goal was to get them thinking about what could grow and how they could impact the space. This was a simple activity that was accomplished in an hour but could be adapted for a longer period of time and made more complex for older kids with readings or other lessons on interplanting, biology of plants/ecosystems, etc.


Check out what the kids came up with:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/givinggarden/sets/72157623639166573/

What to do with a hole in the ground

A ten year old boy, enthusiastic about planting seeds and seeming to be just plain happy to be alive: "Miss Lisa...I found a hole over there. Can I use the hand shovel to see what's under it?!" Very excited he digs a little deeper and comes running back over. "Um, can I, um, plant something there? Pleeeease?!". I must have looked doubtful because he said to me in a very committed voice, "I'll water it everyday at snack time! I'll come out here with a cup of water and water it everyday." How could I say no? So, as of yesterday we have a Carrot, I believe, trying to forge a life near our future garden sight, hugged up against a cinder block wall experiencing very little sun. I pray that that thing grows. If it doesn't we'll know that it wasn't due to lack of water!

Materials List for After-School Garden Club

Seeds

• Organic seeds (Carrots, tomatoes, potatoes, pickling cucumbers, beans, peppers, strawberries, basil, collard greens and dinasour kale, onions, flowers, sunflowers, watermelon, flowers)
• Sources: We purchase reliable sources of non-gmo &/or Organic seeds: 
• Johnny's Seeds - http://www.johnnyseeds.org
• Seed Savers Exchange - http://www.seedsavers.org 
• Local Heirloom Seed Swaps - ask around for one in your area, or start one!
• Local Harvest: http://www.localharvest.org

Office Supplies & Craft Supplies

• Large flip chart paper
• Markers (flip charts & permanent)
• Pencils
• Colored Pencils (For making field notes)
• Popsicle Sticks (large) for labeling
• Stencils of plants, flowers, trees, fruits, etc- anything that might look gardeny - perhaps a nature stencil set (for decorating & making signage)

Hardware Store (Garden Section)

• 3 Shovels
• 2 Large rakes
• 6 Hand shovels/trowels
• 4 Hand rakes
• 1 Large Roll of Twine/Baling Twine
• 1 Roll of Chicken Wire (for the top of the compost bin)
• 3 Large Watering cans (Shower head-type)
• 2 Small (single stream, houseplant-type) Watering Cans
• Gloves (with rubber coating on palms (2) 5-packs
• 1 Big bottle of Sunscreen
• Non-VOC Paints (Non-toxic for outdoor use, one gallon each of red, yellow, blue, black and white - all should be the same brand, stick to bright colors)
• Wooden Signs (These could be pine-boards, approx. 12" x 24" or another shape/size - that we can attached to raised beds - we'd need to make at least one sign for the garden name)
• 8 Tomato Cages
• Bamboo Stakes (4 packs of 5)
• 2-3 Large Plastic Storage Bins with lids
• (Ideal Situation...) 1 smallish outdoor Plastic Storage Unit w/lock

Local Home & Garden Store

• Organic Potting soil- 1 large bag (about $11 each)
• Seed Starting trays (open flats &/or divided flats)

Raised Beds

• In our area, we have a community organization that puts together raised bed kits. For our time-frame and purposes, it is easiest to purchase four 4x4-foot raised bed kits and place them in a grid or diamond pattern at our site. Kits cost about $30-$40 each.
  

A possible layout of 4 raised beds

Pictured above: Two 4x4 raised bed kits, assembled.
One is covered with a homemade mini-hoop for season extension.

Other

• Compost/Soil - We estimate we'd need about 4 cubic yards to fill the four raised beds, and 1 full size pickup truck should hold about 2.5 cubic yards  - so we would need to make 2 trips to the compost center. Each Cubic yard costs $7 at the Ann Arbor site.
• http://www.soilbuildingsystems.com/CubicYard.php
• $7/cubic yard up to 9 yards per truck load
  http://www.a2gov.org/government/publicservices/fieldoperations/solidwasteunit/Pages/CompostSales.aspx
• Free! Mulch-woodchips - The city gives these away mulch for free and even delivers for free. We just need to contact them about 1 week before delivery.
  
  
• Free! 4 Wooden pallets - we will re-purpose these to create our compost bin (these can be painted so they look nice) - we just need to find them!

D-Town Farm (Detroit): Compost Bin

 

D-Town Farm Raised Bed made of Recycled Lumber (Detroit)

Giving Garden (Ypsilanti): Compost Bin made of Pallets & Upcycled Wire Shelving

 Examples of Signage at D-Town Farm (Detroit)

Day Two: The Hundred-Mile Pizza

Photo Credit: "Dessertess" by Flickr user: mcbeth 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mcbeth/3191521951/
(cc) some rights reserved

Day Two marked the official start of the Garden Club. We have about eight kids, three boys and five girls. We decided that today's goals would be to a) introduce the concepts of local food and the food system and b) introduce the concept of documentation and journaling. Thus, we choose the 100-Mile Pizza and field journals.

l e s s o n    p l a n 



Objectives

• Introduce the concept of food as part of culture
• Introduce the concept of local food (within 100 miles)
• Create Field Journals & Introduce the concept of writing, documentation, and observation



Materials

• Pizza Margherita: dough, tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, flour, rolling pin, pizza stone) 

• Field Journals: scrap paper, scrap cardboard covers (from cereal boxes), string or pipe cleaners, markers/decorations 
•  
General: kitchen, flipchart paper and markers

Preparation 
Gather ingredients 
Preheat oven at 2:45 PM 
Prepare flip-chart




Part One: 100-Mile Pizza

A) Flipchart Chat:

1. What do you think a 100-Mile Pizza is?

2. Why would we make a 100-Mile Pizza?

B) Assemble Pizza!

While making the pizza:

1. Talk about each ingredient and where it comes from… 


2. Talk about food and celebrations: What kind of foods do you eat at family celebrations?

Why do you think we celebrate with food?



Part Two: Field Journals 

A. Show a sample journal; introduce field journals and the craft project.

B. Ask for responses: Why would we keep field journals?

We keep a field journal so we have a place to record our thoughts and observations. When gardening, there are lots of things to keep track of and to plan. It helps to have a journal on-hand so you know what happens from year to year. 


C. Make & decorate journals!


Part Three: Quick Reflection 


In your journals: Why did we make a 100-mile pizza today?



Think about for next week: 


a. What do we need to pay attention to in order to be a great team?

b. What is a good name for our garden club? 



w h a t   w e   a c t u a l l y   d i d

1. We switched the activities in order to use more preparation time for the pizza.
2. We used our pizza and local ingredients discussion as a transition between the two activities.
3. Activity One: Field Journals
• The kids made assembled the journals with the packets we made for them.
• As we made them, we talked about why we used recycled materials and why we would make a field journal. The kids came up with great answers to our question, including:
• to record what we plant
• to record what we harvest
• to make drawings of what is growing
4. Activity Two: 100-Mile Pizza
• Originally, we intended that each student would have a task and each would get a chance to talk about food in their families. 
• However we switched this up, too - due to the short time (one hour), and how long it was taking to make the journals. Instead, a few kids jumped in to help assemble the pizza and later the other were able to help toss and roll the dough for cheesy-breadsticks and chop mozzerella and sprinkle spices. Everyone got to do something to help make the pizza, and we did have some unstructured chatting while we made it, which helped us bond as a team a bit.
• Everyone got a bite to eat! It was DELICIOUS! All the kids and teachers liked the taste! Yay!

w h a t    w e    l e a r n e d

• Differing Levels of Autonomy: In attempting to do the field journals exercise, we realized that each student was not equally interested or capable of sitting down to make the field journals. There were many steps and for the guys, especially, this activity did not seem to meet their expectations
• With One Hour Ticking Away... Just get to the fun: From now on, we'll have to orient our activities around actions and make room for some discussion, listening and dialogue as a natural part of each activity. Less sitting, more doing! That is likely the reason these kids joined Garden Club!
• Start with Establishing Norms: This is like, facilitation & teaching 101, but in our haste, we did not follow the rule. Always start with establish norms for discussion. We did this half-way through, but now that it's done, we'll refer to it and clarify it in the future.
• Quick Reflection could become Quick Review...? Maybe as an opener we can try the quick reflection in the beginning, maybe even as a flip-chart chat... to review and catch up for the kids that missed.

Until next time!

peas,

lindsey