At The HEAL Project (THP) we were thankful to resume our Intensive Garden Program (IGP) lessons in person for third graders after a year of remote garden learning. What’s more, THP offered IGP at all four elementary schools in the Cabrillo Unified School District for the first time in our history! Enjoy the overview and images below of Hatch students and their IGP Educator, Emily Cheng, as they enjoyed 13 activity-filled weeks together in IGP.
Week 1 - Tacos de Papas
Our Fall season of the Intensive Garden Program began with 3rd graders in the last week of August. The students had a blast exploring the garden, harvesting fruit and vegetables, and making their own food. In the first week, students discussed the anatomy of a potato (it's a stem, not a root!), planted their own potatoes, and made tacos de papas.
Week 2 - Insect Mouthparts
The second week, students learned about beneficial insects and made a strawberry ladybug. We learned about insect mouth parts: we used party-blowers to act out how butterflies use their proboscis to suck nectar from flowers, straws to mimic mosquitos, sponges to soak up liquid like flies, and our own tongues to lap up food like bees.
Week 3 - Food Chain
The third week, students learned about food chains, began garden chores, and had a chamomile tea party.
Week 4 - Companion Planting
Students learned about companion planting — how plants help one another grow and thrive — and made garden-fresh salsa with Hatch Elementary-grown tomatoes.
Week 5 - Planting Seeds
This week students learned how to properly plant seeds in the garden. They were so eager to see the seeds sprout! Students taste tested three radishes: red, daikon, and wild. We voted with sticky notes to see which type we liked best.
Week 6 - Plant Parts Tacos
This week, we prepared for our Field Trip to Giusti Farms by talking about the lifecycle of a pumpkin plant and discussing which parts of plants we eat. We put this information to use when we created plant parts tacos from our own Hatch garden!
Week 7 - Compost & Field Trip
This week, students learned about composting and the decomposing power of the FBI: fungus, bacteria, and invertebrates. For our tasting, students tried the humongous chilacayote squashes that have been growing in our garden. Students enjoyed a Field Trip to Giusti Farms, long-time supporters of The HEAL Project. It was fun seeing enthusiastic students and lots of parents participate in the fun.
Thank you to the Giusti’s for hosting us!
Week 8 - Fall Planting & Soil Prep
This week, students tilled the soil, added compost to the garden beds, planted seeds and seedlings. We planted carrots, radishes, broccoli, cauliflower, fava beans, dragon tongue beans, and rainbow chard. Students learned how to use Square Foot Planting Guidelines to help them know how much room a plant needs in order to grow. For our tasting, students sampled strawberry and redcurrant jam. We talked about how jam is a way we can preserve fruit for later usage.
Week 9 - Lunch Bag Ecology & Saving
This week, students saved seeds and learned how the seed is produced in the plant. We discussed where their food comes from with a fun "lunch bag ecology" exercise. We also got to make a fun and healthy snack from our garden harvest: veggie omelets.
Week 10 - The Great & Powerful Worm
This week, students learned about the great and powerful worm! We discussed the worm anatomy, lifecycle, and burrows. We identified a ton of egg sacs in our worm composting bin, then named and measured some of the worms we found (the longest was 7 inches!). We harvested Brussel sprouts and purple potatoes. And for our tasting, we sampled fuyu persimmons - a yummy fall treat!
Week 11 - Let’s Talk about Bees
This week, we learned all about bees - how they turn nectar into honey, how they communicate with each other using the waggle dance, and their role as pollinators. Students did a honey tasting, comparing raw, local honey to store-bought honey. The winner by a landslide was the local honey from The HEAL Project Farm’s bees!
Week 12 - Slow Go Woah Foods
This week, students learned the value of eating a diverse rainbow of colors of fruits and vegetables. They learned which are the best foods to eat for different parts of their body and created posters to “advertise” healthy foods.
Week 13 - Graduation!
Classmates wrapped things up by sharing the importance of eating a variety of healthy foods and reflected on their time spent in the garden. THP gave an assessment to understand how students’ learning progressed in the 13 weeks spent together. Finally, students celebrated their time in IGP over a bowl of student-made vegetable soup.
We have begun Spring 2022 IGP at all four schools with 2nd graders, and we look forward to Garden Club with 4th and 5th grade students!