9-12 June 2009 Weekly Update | Gardening - Activities

Education By Gardening - Recent Activities

Friday, June 12, 2009 4:25 PM

9-12 June 2009 Weekly Update

The Education by Gardening program at FHC is blessed this summer with a busy schedule serving children from Fervent Prayer Outreach Ministries Church, Zion Hill Baptist Church, Edna Martin Center, and IPS #51.

This summer's activities have been made possible by grants from the Summer Youth Program Fund (SYPF) Partners: Annie E. Casey Foundation and from Lilly Endowment. Additional aid has come by way of the Lilly Day of Service with donations of man power along with plants, compost, mulch, and hand garden tools, etc., Community Hospital's Wellness Program's donation of a RN's time, Jr. Master Gardener guidance and volunteers from Purdue Extension/Keep Indianapolis Beautiful (KIB), science kits from Lilly's Science Education Outreach, and an intern from the Indianapolis Peace Institute. Of course nothing would be possible without the donation of time and energy from many volunteers who lovingly work with the Indianapolis inner city youth and in our garden.

Week 1 June 9-12
Themes:

Plant Growth and Development

Soil Testing

Food Safety & Hand Washing

Our campers, as we affectionately call them, are starting this first week getting acquainted with the garden and FHC volunteers. While here, they rotate through various stations and participate in hands on activities.

One group started by learning about the parts of a plant and examining potted pansies. They looked at the roots, stems, leaves, flowers, etc. and learned about chlorophyll. It did not take long for them to loose any shyness and start asking questions and offering answers. Next they trooped through the garden and identified plant parts of different vegetables at various stages of growth. They touched, smelled, and probed the plants while listening and showing what they just learned. This was followed by planting some sun flower and marigold seeds or transplanting some squash plants and getting hands dirty.

A second group learned that plants need proper nutrition to grow healthy and strong. They set about using test kits to determine the pH, nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus of samples of soil that was collected from different sites in the garden. They worked in groups of two or three to do the tests. Each camper was able to prepare the sample or add the testing tablet and then they all took turns mixing the sample while waiting for the reaction to be completed. They tried to guess the results before they were finished and then they observed the color and compared it to the test kit's chart. Finally, they documented the results which will be used in next week's activities.

The third group learned about safe food preparation and storage. They read their activity booklets aloud and colored the pages. They learned how germs spread from person to person and from things to hands. It made an impression when they thought about backpacks sitting on the floors (bathroom floors too!) and how germs could be carried to their hands or kitchen counter tops. The real excitement occurred after passing around stuffed toys that had FAKE GERMS on them. Then they looked at their hands under a black light and saw how many germs they had collected from passing the toys. This was followed by learning proper hand washing. It was fun singing the ABCs while washing hands to make sure the soap had enough time to remove the germs. But, it was especially exciting looking at their hands under the black light again and not seeing any of those nasty FAKE GERMS!

Each day ended with a healthy snack. This week campers and volunteers enjoyed fruit kabobs containing apples, bananas, pineapple, and grapes along with some low fat yogurt and coconut to dip into. A cold glass of milk tasted good too.

A big disappointment was that Tuesday's campers from Fervent Prayer Outreach Ministries Church were unable to join us this week because their bus broke down. We look forward to being with them next week.

Below are pictures from each day's activities. If you wish to see more pictures, just click on the appropriate link and enjoy!

Wednesday:

Exploring the Garden