SAKG NEWS

Welcome back! We are hoping that everybody had a lovely summer break and are excited about our return to school and all that 2024 has to offer. 

We have thrown ourselves straight into kitchen and have had a wonderfully busy beginning to Term 1 of 2024.  Our garden and chickens were very fruitful over the holidays and we have started out with a plentiful harvest to use up in the kitchen.  The children are making summer slice with zucchini and eggs, salad with lettuce, cucumber and baby carrots, pesto pastry twists with pesto that the kids have made using carrot tops and basil, and stone fruit crumble using apricots and plums from our fruit trees. In addition to this the kids are learning about edible flowers and we have them aplenty in our garden. Not only are they beautiful and essential for pollination, but they look and taste delicious in salad too!  We are also teaching the kids about preserving our harvest.  At the moment we have a glut of zucchinis so we are grating and freezing them to use later in the year when the garden slows down. This teaches kids about sustainability, reducing waste and is good for applied mathematics as they have to weigh the produce and measure it as they go.  We are also preserving our herbs and other greens by making pesto. The crumble is always a favourite with the children.  We sliced the stone fruit into thin pieces so that there was no need to stew it first, sprinkled with a little bit of brown sugar for caramelisation and then topped it with a basic crumble recipe. Give it a try, it works with any stone fruit, nectarine and peaches are delicious too! 

Likewise in the garden we have hit the ground running. So that everyone is on the same page the students, along with Jodie, have developed a set of garden rules and expectations. This is very important to ensure that the garden is a safe and enjoyable space. As a whole class, Jodie has demonstrated how to thin carrots, so we can eat baby carrots and leave room for the small ones to grow larger.

This fortnight's focus is around seasons. We are talking about what season is it in the garden, what do we see in the garden in this season and what do plants need to grow in this season? Breaking up into our regular four groups of animals, harvest, grow and observe and create our students have been caring out their assigned tasks.  Those in the animal group have been caring for the chickens and guinea pigs by cleaning their spaces, collecting eggs and checking they have sufficient water and food, collecting some yummy treats from our ‘animal feed garden bed’.  Our harvest group are picking plums and seed saving, as well as harvesting carrots, lettuce, cucumber, basil, nasturtium leaves & flowers, spring onions, beans and chives for upcoming kitchen classes. Our Grow group are planting seedlings, germinating seeds for autumn/winter crops & fertilising the veggies. And lastly our observe and create group are making clay ornaments for the garden by pressing seeds heads and other plant specimens into air dry clay & applying ink. These are looking amazing.

Now for a couple of notices: firstly we would like to remind families of what else our kitchen and garden program have to offer.  The garden is open for students to come and explore every lunchtime.  This maybe to help with watering, digging/preparing garden beds, weeding, catching butterflies, cuddles for our guinea pigs and chickens, plus so much more.  We are in the process of creating a timetabling whereby specific days will allocated to set classes so as everybody gets a chance to visit. Please listen to the lunchtime announcements and then come and join our garden leaders Paul and Eli as they will guide and help students around the garden. 

Secondly, to assist with the smooth running of SAKG program we do require the support of volunteers. Thank-you to those who have already put their hand-up. We welcome everyone, whether it be new parents/families or ones who have been at the school for several years. To be able to volunteer you will need to have a current Working with Children Check (Volunteer Card – free) which is available online and to complete an induction (information) session which we run here at school.  If you are interested in volunteering in the program please contact Mrs O’Brien, Kate, Jodie or see the ladies in the front office. 

And lastly we would like to say a big thank you to the Dobe, Riedl, Bryant, Leitch, Tester and Cunningham families for caring for the guinea pigs and chickens over the summer break. We greatly appreciate your support.

 Mrs O’Brien, Kate & Jodie