Ms. Yoshida's Class Plants in the Salsa Garden

Ms. Yoshida's students planted in the salsa garden on April 20. Half of the class came at one time, which is how we split the class for small group classroom instruction.First we discussed the ingredients in salsa-they offered such names as tomato, onion, garlic, cilantro and pepper. I also showed them a lime. We're growing everything but lime in our garden. We also discussed what salsa rojo and salsa verde meant and that salsa means sauce in Spanish. The students wrote in their journals before planting.

We had three groups for planting-one with Ms. Marie, one with Ms. Carolyn and one with Laura, a parent. The children planted cilantro, carrots, lettuce, onions and basil. Carrots, lettuce, onions and basil are companion plants for tomatoes. We discussed that companions are friends or people or things that go along together. Other companion plants for tomatoes include asparagus, beans, celery, dill, melon, parsley, peppers, radishes, spinach and thyme.

After planting and watering the students tasted three varieties of salsa with tortilla chips-verde, plain rojo and rojo with peach and mango.

The children will make salsa with vegetables from the salsa garden in August when they return to school.