Gardening for Wildlife and Opportunities for Citizen Science

Gardening for Wildlife

Several areas at Marquez attract butterflies and birds including the Native American Garden, the butterfly garden, some plants planted by LAUSD in the re-landscaping and some areas on the upper yard.  The landscaped area by the auditorium seems to have the most birds and the fewest squirrels. A resource for involving your students in this topic is from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology http://www.birdsleuth.org/investigation/.  Bird Sleuth has some ideas for citizen science projects. Another resource is the National Wildlife Federation. www.nwf.org/en/Garden-for-Wildlife.   

The Habitat Network, www.yardmap.com, helps people to map their outdoor spaces and see how inviting they are for wildlife. This could be done at school or home.

Activities to make a school more welcoming can include bird feeders, water, more plants for food and shelter. What are you interested in doing? What birds do you see near you?

We are adjacent to the Santa Monica Mountains and should have more birds visiting our campus.

Resources for native plants include Theodore Payne www.theodorepayne.org, Audubon www.audubon.org,  and Las Pilitas Nursery www.laspilitas.com. Some natives that we have at school include poppies, monkey flower, deer grass, yarrow, oak tree, white sage, black sage, purple sage, hummingbird sage. We'll be planting ceanothus, redbud and more in the coming months.

It's Time to Plant California Poppy Seeds

The California poppy is our state flower. Poppy seeds, along with lupine seeds, have been planted in the Marquez School Native American Garden by Ms. Palo's and Ms. Chaides' classes.  They were lightly covered with mulch and are watered weekly.  They hopefully will join with the seeds shed by last spring's poppies to create a mass of orange blossoms at the front of the school.  The poppy self seeds.

Since poppies like poor soil conditions, we will plant them in other areas around school as well and hope for winter rains.

Once the poppies bloom, we can cut them back and they will re bloom.  We can also save the seeds: when the petals drop off you see a long seed pod. Let the pod turn brown and cut it off or wait for it to open. The seeds will be inside.

Check out these articles:

The Davis Enterprise : http://www.davisenterprise.com/features/the-california-poppy-fall-planting-is-best-for-their-natural-life-cycle/;

Theodore Payne: http://www.theodorepayne.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=Eschscholzia_californica

US Forest Service: https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/eschscholzia_californica.shtml

The poppy leaves are used by indigenous peoples for several things including  to relieve toothaches and headaches. Some also use the plant for food.

Succotash!

On September 14 Ms. Palo's students made succotash. The main ingredients for this vegetable dish are corn, beans and squash. These are also the Three Sisters, the plants that the many Native Americans throughout North American planted and that most of these students planted when they were in 3rd grade. (The corn stalks are still visible in the edible garden).

We reviewed the names of the tribes that the students had studied that planted the Three Sisters. The Iroquois is one. There were many varieties of corn, beans and squash used. The squash kept the ground cool, the beans provide nitrogen to the soil and the corn provides the stalk that the beans grow on.

Children worked at their seats preparing the corn, zucchini, beans and other ingredients cutting them into small pieces. The ingredients were then cooked in an electric skillet.

Thanks to Gelson's market for donating the ingredients!

Succotash

1/4 c. olive oil
3 T. unsalted butter
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
1 yellow pepper
1 red pepper
4 ears of corn
3 zucchini
1 c. green beans
1 package lima beans thawed
salt and pepper to taste
1 T. thyme (not used in class)

The olive oil and butter were first heated in the skilled, next the garlic. Everything else was added together.  Cook approximately 10 minutes. Can be served al dente or more fully cooked.

Ms. Connor's Class Studies Parts of a Plant

Today Ms. Connor's 2nd graders reviewed parts of a plant- roots, stem, leaves, flowers, seeds and fruit. They then matched the part of a plant to selected vegetables and herbs after identifying them.

Leaves: arugula, lettuce, beet, basil,cilantro, kale
Stem: broccoli, green onion, beet celery, asparagus
Flower: broccoli
Fruit: tomato, cucumber
Seeds: corn, peas
Roots: onion, beet potato (really a tuber)

They also wrote in their journals before having a snack of carrots.

Yay Salsa!

Today Ms. Farrell's 3rd graders made salsa. Many of the students had planted the ingredients last year as 2nd graders. Two of the children harvested tomatoes from plants in the edible garden though the majority of the tomatoes, as well as the other ingredients, came from Gelson's. (Gelson's has donated a gift card to be used for purchasing food for our cooking projects).

Each child cut a tomato into small pieces and then helped get the cilantro, onions, garlic, olive oil or lime juice ready for the salsa. We used heirloom tomatoes to make the salsa colorful.

The recipe below has jalapeno pepper but we didn't use it today.

Thanks to Alyssa Gallagher, Jenny Lee, Carla Davidson and Joyce Wong Kup for helping!

The Parts of a Plant that We Eat

Today Ms. Gardner's 2nd graders reviewed the parts of a plant, naming them on an illustration on the white board.

They then matched vegetables to the categories: roots, stem, leaves, fruit, flower and seed.
Roots: onion, carrot, beets, radish
Stem: celery, asparagus
Leaves: lettuce, kale, chard, spinach, arugula
Fruit: tomato, cucumber, zucchini
Flower: broccoli, cauliflower
Seeds: corn, peas, beans

They wrote in their garden journals and had a snack of carrots-they all like this veggie!

Eating Vegetables

Today Ms. Yoshida's 2nd grade students reviewed the parts of a plant and discussed what parts of a plant some vegetables came from-roots, stem, leaves, flower, fruit or seed. Ms. Marie drew a plant on the white board and labeled it.

We organized the vegetable names under the parts.
Roots: onions, carrots, beets, radish
Stem: celery, asparagus, beets
Leaves: lettuce, arugula, chard, kale, beets
Flower: broccoli, cauliflower
Fruit: tomato, cucumber, zucchini
Seed: corn, beans, peas

The students wrote in their garden journals and then had a snack of baby carrots.

Thanks to Gelson's for donating the vegetables!