SAKG NEWS

For this fortnights rotation we are taking a trip to Asia in our kitchen, making Vietnamese Rice Paper Rolls,  Mie Goreng with Stir Fried Noodles, Lucky Lunar New Year Almond Cookies and (yes I know it isn't very Asian) pancakes with stewed apples.  In fact apples possibly originate from Asia, rather than North America as is commonly assumed.  Some sources say that they originated in Kazakhstan, in Central Asian east of the Caspian Sea.  The old capital city of Kazakhstan is called Alma Ata, which means full of apples.  It is likely that the Romans took seeds and cultivated them all over Europe and elsewhere.   Perhaps our dessert is Asian after all!  

The paper rolls and the noodles are cornerstone activities for the kids in our program, with plentiful opportunities to develop and hone fine cutting and wrapping skills. The combination of flavours, which individually may taste quite strong or smell strange blend deliciously and the end result is often a pleasant surprise. Most of the veggies we are using are harvested from our garden and the kids have done an amazing job contributing to the jobs of preserving our harvest while we have a glut.  Whether it be chopping excess fruit to dehydrate or grate zucchini to freeze for future cakes and soup or making pesto or even sun dried tomatoes, the kids have been right in the thick of the action.  

Now into the garden where our focus has been on insects. Lessons have commenced with a whole class discussion on the good and bad insects, why we need to attract the good insects and how we go about doing so. This has then lead into the Observe and Create activity of making an insect hotel. As you can see in the photo we are well on the way at creating an amazing high rise for our friendly creepy crawlies with the focus at the moment being the penthouse! 

As for the Grow group they have been busily repotting seedlings as they are getting bigger and fertilising our forever giving fruit trees. Our Harvest group have been seed saving sunflower seeds out of the flower heads.  It’s always a challenge between ensuring the flower heads are dried out enough and getting to the flower heads before the birds do, as they do find the seeds a delicious treat. The Harvest group have also been collecting chard, kale, spring onions and beans for all of the kitchen classes. And then lastly the animal group have been cleaning out the guinea pig cages, replacing the shavings, and cleaning up the chook pen by raking up the old food and placing it in the wheel borrows. Like us the animals like a clean home.

To finish our news just a reminder that the garden is open at lunchtimes, Monday – Thursday with Preps-2 being Monday and Tuesday and then 3-6s Wednesday and Thursday. We hope to see many of you there!

Mrs O’Brien, Kate & Jodie