SAKG NEWS

Term 3 has begun and kitchen classes haven't skipped a beat, leaping straight back in with hand rolled pasta and sauce.  Making pasta from scratch is time consuming and labour intensive but incredibly rewarding as the kids have discovered it’s well worth the effort in terms of taste and texture.   We have been making fettucine using a combination of the pasta rollers and hand cutting and complimenting it with a deliciously prepared sauce of either bolognaise or napolitana.  This sauce is easy to adjust depending on your dietary requirements and available herbs and is easy to flavour using things that most people probably already have in their pantry.  Kate has used a recipe from a food blogger called ‘RecipeTinEats’, but if you have a favourite grandmother's recipe then that will be awesome as well.  We used dried oregano and parsley instead of basil in our sauce, as the basil in the garden is still growing, but any herbs will give the sauce a lovely boost.  The finely dicing of veggies and herbs is really fine tuning the student’s chopping skills which have come a very long way since the beginning of the year. 

To complement our pasta, we have been making a Summer Salad with lemon dressing and garlic bread.  Garlic bread is simple to make and so much nicer when it is fresh, and the salad is popping with colour and flavour.  The Grade 6s have boosted the difficulty level and made Mushroom Bruschetta with Macadamia and Parsley Pesto, taking the simple garlic bread to a whole new level.   To finish off we have a simple bush flavoured cookie with wattle seed and dark chocolate chips.  All in all, a fabulously successful effort from all classes.  

The grade 1s have also had a blast in the kitchen, preparing pancakes and fruit to serve with ice cream.  Older hands helped to cook the pancakes as the benches are still a little high for small people, but those very same small people made short work of chopping and displaying their fruit on a platter and then setting the tables to sit and enjoy eating together.  We had bananas, peaches, strawberries and blueberries, topped off with ice cream. The lack of leftovers said it all, hardly anything for the chooks, as it all went into tummies.....yum!!

This term we welcome Year 3 to the Garden Program. Jodie has talked about the SAKG Program and how it works in the garden. Students then formed four groups and brainstormed what the Animal, Harvest, Grow & Observe & Create groups might enjoy and participate in the garden. The students also watched Magic Seed Pots published by Junior Gardening Australia then sowed a small pot of sunflower seeds (to take home at a later date) and explored the garden. The Junior Gardening Australia video can be viewed here.

The year 4 & 5 students are being introduced to the citizen science project called the Aussie Bird Count. They watch Costa’s Top Tips for Bird Watching Junior Gardening Australia and volunteers from the Observe and Create group participate in the Aussie Bird Count. Other kids from this group make a Bird Nest Shop to help birds make their nests this Spring. The Grow team is busy sifting compost and adding it to a new corrugated iron raised garden bed which will be used to grow tomatoes this year. The guinea pigs are back from their holidays and students from the Animal group are making sure they are well cared for. The Harvesting group is picking lots of leafy greens and herbs for the kitchen. They are also organising salt bush leaves for dehydrating and making herb salt.

The Junior Gardening Australia video, focusing on tips for bird counting can be viewed here.

Bec from the River Detectives visited on Thursday October 9 and trained 5C, so that they can test and monitor the quality of the water at Doug Dean Recreational Reserve. See more about River Detectives at below.

And lastly, we would like to say a big thankyou to all the families who helped look after our animals over the holiday break.  They have all been returned and from all reports they have enjoyed their holiday get away.  Thank you to the families of Paislie B, Maddie and Zavier M and Amity R. We greatly appreciate all your help.

And now for some happy snaps from the beginning of term 4 and the end of Term 3 when Year 6s had their Garden Tea Party to Farewell the SAKG Program.