On Monday, Ms. Yoshida's class celebrated Earth Day by planting seeds in biodegradable pots and having an organic snack. As last year, Whole Foods provided fruit and vegetable platters, seeds and organic potting soil. The children had their choice of fruit and vegetables. Next, they planted either radish, lettuce or kale seeds in pots which are made of peat moss and wood pulp and are 100% biodegradable.  The students were told to keep the soil moist and other directions will be sent home via their teachers. The children enjoyed looking at the worms and watering plants after they planted.
One of the students had the bright idea of collecting the water that overflowed from the drinking fountain and watering plants with it!

Using QR Codes to Learn about the Edible Garden

 
Salsa Garden
Hello! We planted a salsa garden at Marquez Charter Elementary School.
We planted onions, tomatoes, cilantro, peppers, and garlic.
We will make salsa next year in 3rd grade.
There are two types of salsa that we will be making, salsa verde and salsa rojo.
Verde is green in Spanish and rojo is red in Spanish.
There is another kind of salsa.
It is sweet and has fruit.
We love gardening with our garden teacher Miss Marie.

By Eleanor and Coco, 2nd grade students

Sticky Monkey Flower

Sticky Monkey Flower
Scientific name: mimulus aurantiacus


     The Sticky Monkey Flower is found mostly by the Californian coast and partially in the Sierra Nevada. Its name comes from the fact that the flower part resembles a monkey's face and it has a gluey substance exuding from it. It's wavy petals are red with yellow in the middle, yellow with white in the middle, cream colored, salmon pink, or brick red. It has long yellow and/or white pistils. It has a smooth stem with long slender dark green leaves and can grow from 6 to 48 inches. The Sticky Monkey Flower's stalks and leaves were eaten as salad, used as a salt substitute, and used to treat skin irritations, minor burns, and rope burns by the Tongva Indians. A root concoction was used for treating epilepsy, and a plant concoction was used as a wash to counteract poisons. The Sticky Monkey Flower is home to the Checkerspot and Buckeye butterfly's larva. They eat the flowers as food and the Checkerspot butterflies lay their eggs on them. Also, in the Spring, baby birds need protein, and so they eat the larva. The Sticky Monkey Flower usually blooms from January through May.

Report by Samantha, Grade

2nd Grade Earth Day Celebration with Whole Foods

Today was the second annual Earth Day celebration for the 2nd grade. As last year, Whole Foods provided fruit and vegetable platters, seeds and organic potting soil. Mrs. Fein's class, Mr. Jacobs' class, Ms. Connor's class and Ms. Abrams' class each visited the garden. The children had their choice of fruit and vegetables. Next, they planted either radish or kale seeds in peat pots which are made of peat moss and wood pulp and are 100% biodegradable.  The students were told to keep the soil moist and other directions will be sent home via their teachers. Thanks to Victoria Polakoff of Whole Foods Santa Monica and a former Palisadian, for her contributions!

Volunteer Laura S. waters seeds in biodegradable cups

Victoria from Whole Foods and Carolyn H. serve fruit and veggies from Whole Foods to the kids.

Ms. Abrams' Class Plants in the Salsa Garden

On April 22, Ms. Abrams' class learned about the ingredients in salsa and planted in the salsa garden. They planted cilantro seeds and onions to join the tomatoes and peppers that are already there.  We discussed that they will harvest the tomatoes, onions, garlic, peppers and cilantro at the beginning of 3rd grade and make salsa from them.

Today they tasted chips with three types of salsa-salsa rojo, salsa rojo with peaches and mango and salsa verde. They learned that rojo means red in Spanish and verde means green. Several students already knew this! Salsa rojo was most popular!

Thanks to the 3rd grade Brownie troop

This week the 3rd grade Brownie troop replanted the butterfly garden. They planted milkweed, calibrachoa, penstemon and zinnias.  They join other butterfly and hummingbird loving plants in the garden such as parsley, chives, sage, rosemary and butterfly bush. Thank you, girls and their leader, Leah Herndon!

Ms. Connor's Class Plants in the Salsa Garden

Ms. Connor's class planted in the garden on April 20. Some students planted cilantro or onions in the salsa garden and others planted lettuce, basil or carrots, companion plants of tomatoes. Some plants that are companions of tomatoes include basil, asparagus, beans, carrots, celery, dill,
 lettuce, onions, melon, parsley, peppers, radishes, spinach and thyme. We discussed that companions are friends, that go along together!

The students ate salsa and chips. The three varieties of salsa were salsa rojo, salsa rojo with peaches and mangos and salsa verde. We discussed the meaning of rojo (red) and verde (green) in English.