The students in this class decided to make
corn fritters and salsa to go with them. Way back last year they thought that
they would grow the corn for the festival and that fritters made from that corn
would be their dish. We are Carla, Edward and Raukura and there are two things
that stand out for us from our festival experiences.
The first is with the help of Mr K we made
a hydroponics unit for inside the classroom out of plastic drink bottles. This
was to grow the herbs for the salsa and the fritters. We also grew some herbs
in our class garden and the school hydroponics unit. We had to experiment with
different ways to stop the algae growing on the bottles and we found that
wrapping paper around the bottle was the best thing to do this. We grew
coriander in our hydroponics in the classroom.
The other thing that we remember is making
the robots out of the tins cans. Well you see the sweet corn didn’t grow as
well as we thought because it was a bit dry this year and so we had to make our
fritters using tinned corn. But we made these robots using the cans to make up
the robot. We were recycling the cans.
In our inquiry books we did labels for our
food items, we googled a recipe for the salsa and we made posters to advertise
the festival. Since the festival we have brainstormed how we should use the
money and reviewed the jobs at the festival.
Some thoughts from each of us:
Carla
I haven’t really changed anything at home
since we started doing the things for the festival. I have a small garden at
home.
I hadn’t done experiments before we did
this so the most significant thing for me was the experiments. I think I might
get to use them again as we are doing the ecological island and there is going
to be a science room on the island. I would call my story The Kai Festival.
Ed
The change for me at home was that I helped
my Poppa to make some hydroponics. He’s got a garden and he’s got like a little
hydroponics, a weed sprayer, his own compost too, and a hot house, two hot
houses. Poppa and I worked together on this we like plant tomatoes. He even
planted a tomato the size of his hand. The difference for is like that my Poppa
isn’t, hasn’t really made hydroponics before and he hasn’t really heard of it
only on the TV guide.
The tin can plan was really significant for
me and hydroponics in the room was something new. From here I think we could
get more cans and make a skink kingdom on the ecological island. We could vote
for the best skink playground.
I would call my story The Experience of the Kai Festival.
Raukura
I don’t know if there is a change for me at
home I have a garden at home and I water it every morning. Actually I do have a
change I had a change I knew that I had to water my gardens every day otherwise
if I didn’t they would eventually they would. I have these and they are going
really well and they’re called guava’s growing well close to the lemon –sometimes
I think they are a couple but sometimes I think they are sharing roots to be
healthy.
The most significant thing for me has been
the Green Team and the thinking about the animals for the Ecological Island. We
are thinking whether to put an arch bridge over it or digging underneath it and
putting glass so that we can see, not letting us drown or anything.
I think that we are thinking about the
animals that will eat the plants on the island and if other classes had cans
left over we could plant animal food in the cans and then put on the ecological
island. It need lost of plants.
An innovative thing we have been doing is
thinking about hiding from predators and camouflage on the island.
I would call my story Our Kai Festival.
Story number
|
006
|
Title
|
Corn Fritters and Salsa
|
Date
|
10-12 April 2013
|
Person recording
|
Faye
|
Storyteller(s)
|
Students
Carla aged 8 (f), Edward aged 8 (m),
Raukura aged 8 (f)
|
Feedback
Faye
|
d)
Developing the concept of sustainability as a reality
Students in this story are beginning to
experience some of the ideas embodied in sustainability. For example they
plan to use their own corn for their dish at the festival but learn along the
way that seasonal cycles can dictate the quality of the harvest. Then they
experience the need for adaptability and flexibility to change when the corn
harvest doesn’t eventuate as planned. In this case they adapt by using another
source - the tinned corn. The opportunity from the tins has been to grow
plants for the ecological island and have some fun with making robots, thus
re-using a resource. I am wondering about the degree to which students
understand what they have done includes these aspects of sustainability?
|
Feedback
Robyn
|
d)
Developing the concept of sustainability as a reality
In this story I feel that the students
are trying to make sense of all these things happening. I think that they
could be on the cusp of seeing the connections between the different projects
that they are involved in – but they are not there yet.
|
Feedback
Wendy
|
d)
Developing the concept of sustainability as a reality
This story describes some fantastic
learning – lots of problem solving, testing, hypothesising, and
research. The fact they recognised
they had created waste through using cans, and then took action to create
something from that waste shows they are making links and deepening their
understanding of sustainability. The
can robots was a very creative and positive response to what could have been
a sad situation – unsuccessful corn growing.
There is clearly a lot of transfer of gardening skills and interest
between home and school with a number of students commenting on their own
gardens.
|