As the state of Washington comes together to take care of each other and get the vaccine–making it safer for students to return to school–Nicole and the students haen able to get back out into the garden.
Some of the most recent lessons that the students have been working on involve learning about pollinators! Nicole and the students are not only learning about the functions and form of pollinators, but they are also designing their own. Engineering pollinators from materials is a great way that students can practice Next Generation Science Standards that keep them on track for science and environmental literacy.
In the school learning garden, students get an opportunity to search for real live pollinators and observe what colors of flowers they are attracted to. The pollinator color investigation reinforces the importance of pollinators in our garden and gives students the chance to come up with ways to encourage more pollinators to visit our school garden.
Since Spring is here, learning about the pollinators is a great transition back into the garden after a year and a half away. As we welcome your students back to the on campus gardens, they will notice changes that they or their peers have helped participate in during one of our many work parties.
During the work parties, we have added a few new beds, including a garden bed style from another culture. The newest bed, called “Hügelkultur”, is a form of German mound gardening. The unique hill shape allows for the sun to hit it in different ways so that more sun-loving plants can grow on one side, and more shade tolerant ones on the other. It also allows for more plants to grow since there is more surface area in the bed than if it were on a flat surface. Finally, it is made out of logs, which will decompose over time, adding rich compost to the soil.
During the work parties, we have added a few new beds, including a garden bed style from another culture. The newest bed, called “Hügelkultur”, is a form of German mound gardening. The unique hill shape allows for the sun to hit it in different ways so that more sun-loving plants can grow on one side, and more shade tolerant ones on the other. It also allows for more plants to grow since there is more surface area in the bed than if it were on a flat surface. Finally, it is made out of logs, which will decompose over time, adding rich compost to the soil.
If you can, join us for our final garden party this Sunday, June 6th! We will be further beatifying our already gorgeous Cascadia Learning Garden.
This will help to insulate the area where they lay and sleep.
Many kids are really into both fennel and Greek Mythology, so this goes over pretty well. However, you can make this experience your own by sharing a different story about another herb that your kids enjoy! Here are some 
different varieties of herbs you have in your garden space and how to harvest and cut the plants into small pieces in order to make fresh mint, lemon balm, rosemary, etc. tea! Let them mix and match and make fun combinations. A boy in one of my after-school programs even decided to make chive tea, which the other students really loved! Once all the herbs have been harvested, rinsed, and chopped, they can either be put in a french press or a tea pot and then strained to serve! I usually add a little bit of sugar.
This can be done with store-bought disposable tea bags, or for a more rustic look, cheese cloth and string! Simply cut the cheese cloth into about 5×5” squares for the students to fill with various herb clippings and cut out lengths of string for them to tie them closed with as well as to use as the “dipper”.
In some cases, the language differences have even been a source of bullying behavior from students who choose to mock or imitate their bilingual classmates. This can be helped by celeb
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