|
|
|
Home
|
Email Newsletter and Offers
|
May 2008 Parent Newsletter
Education in the Garden: Planting a Pizza
Spring is the perfect time for children to learn about gardening. There are so many teaching opportunities: proper planning, choosing the right materials, and recycling (composting). One way to get their full attention is to plant a pizza garden. Children love to tend this small garden, especially when they know the fruits of their labor will top a pizza later in the summer. Many pizza ingredients, including tomatoes, green peppers, sweet peppers, onions, basil, oregano, thyme, and parsley require similar growing conditions, such as good soil, regular watering and full sun. That means you can plant everything fairly close together, even in the shape of a pizza pie. Here’s how:
- Divide an 8-10 foot circle into six equal "slices." Each slice will contain a different plant (place the four herbs within two slices). This is a good time to remind children about fractions. "What fraction represents the peppers in our garden?" And, "Can you reduce 2/8 further?"
- Make a list of what plants you want to purchase at your local nursery. Teach your children how to check the Sunday newspaper ads to compare plant prices.
- Purchase the following: one roma tomato plant, two green pepper plants, two sweet red pepper plants, six onion plants, two sweet basil plants, and one plant of each of these: oregano, thyme, and parsley. Have your children add up the total cost of your "pizza" and save this figure for later.
- Plant the tomato plant in the northernmost slice of your garden so it won’t steal sun from the smaller plants by casting a shadow over them. Water the plants and then create a small composting area at the end of the yard. Dig up a small area of earth and turn the soil a few times. Keep a bucket under the kitchen sink and encourage the kids to fill it with anything organic, like banana peels, apple cores, egg shells, etc. Assign composting duty every night after dinner. That involves dumping the bucket on the compost pile and turning it over with a shovel (this should take 60 seconds, which you can remind them if they balk).
- Check on your garden's progress every three to four days and teach your children how to weed properly (grab the root otherwise you'll be weeding again in two days). When it's time to water, ask your kids to check the weather forecast to see if upcoming rain showers will do the watering for you. In a few weeks, your composting pile will be ready (when most of the items have decomposed), so place a one-inch layer around each plant. If you continue composting throughout the summer, you'll have a nutrient-rich pile next spring for fertilizing.
- Within two months, you and your children can harvest the vegetables and herbs. Now is a great time to explain the difference between a fruit and a vegetable (fruits have seeds, vegetables don't), and ask your kids if a tomato is a fruit or vegetable (it's a fruit). Now they know a fact that baffles many adults!
- Either make your own pizza dough or purchase pre-made dough from your grocery store. Help your kids top it with a little pizza sauce and the toppings of their choice. They can even personalize their own "slice" with their favorites.
- Sit down as a family and enjoy the fruits of your labor. This is a fun time to remind kids how much their "pizza" costs. Now compare it to the price at your local restaurant. They’ll feel even more rewarded by their efforts!
2009 Parent Newsletters
2008 Parent Newsletters
2007 Parent Newsletters
|