SAKG NEWS

We are winding down somewhat in our kitchen classes this rotation and cooking some simple favourites. This is a nice restful menu after some busy sessions this term and also an opportunity to use up the garden greens harvest and some bits and pieces in the pantry. The grade 3s and 4s have used the jam drop cookie recipe to make shortbread shapes using the cookie cutters that they made in Digitech on the 3D printers. We encountered some challenges as many of the intricate patterns on the cutters didn't quite work on the dough but we had fun and the cookies were amazingly delicious.

First up we have veggie soup using quinoa. We used a simple recipe, found on the back of the quinoa packet, basically chopped veggies with a tin of tomato, mexican beans, and a ½ cup of quinoa in vegetable stock. The kids are still honing their chopping skills and finely diced was a requirement for this recipe. Many kids are used to a blitzed soup and this one was chunky. Most kids however enjoyed it and it is easy to mix and match according to what you have available.

To compliment our soup we made a spanakopita, which uses plenty of herbs and green from the garden, and while we are moving into the planting season our garden is still supplying us with plenty of greens and herbs. We also made pastry straws using the pesto that we made earlier in the term. These are both very flavoursome and a great way to incorporate greens into flavoursome meals. The kids did an excellent job twisting the pastry which became more and more challenging the thinner we made the straws.

Last but not least, the cookies. The classes that didn't have special cookie cutters have made jam drop using the flower shaped cookie cutter and popping a teaspoon full of jam in the centre. The cookie dough can be tricky, as it gets melty and soft when it is handled, but the kids making that have learnt some good lessons about creaming butter and sugar, rolling dough and some clever tricks to get the shapes to stay put.

In the garden Year 6 students have their last session this fortnight. We are celebrating by having a Garden Tea Party. Students get to choose 2-3 activities and rotate through them. There has been a guinea pig petting zoo, a chook goodbye, CD weaving & planting a sunflower in a paper pot to take home. Students also get a cup of tea (so many choices!) and a lamington to help with the celebration.

Year 4s and 5’s are thinking about the growing season in the school garden. Questions are posed for students to consider such as: When is the growing season in Ballarat? Why do we call it the growing season? Building their knowledge about the cold temperate climate in Ballarat that has a short growing season. Learning that there is a right time to sow seeds, that depends on the amount of warmth in soil and available light. Students also get to look at a variety of seeds and view sunflower seeds germinating in a viewing jar. Jodie then demonstrates how to sow seeds into a punnet that is then put in the greenhouse. This warm environment means that seeds can be germinated earlier. A couple of tips she shared are:

Some seeds we sow into punnets & others directly into the garden. Carrots are planted directly into the garden bed, as they don’t like roots disturbed at all!
The golden rule for sowing seeds: double the size of seed is depth we plant it. The bigger the seed the deeper we plant.

After this talk and demonstration, the students then break up into four groups (Animals, Harvest, Grow and Observe and Create) to get things done in the garden. Below are some snap shots of all this in action.

Mrs O’Brien, Kate, Jodie & Lucinda