The first day of the camp was certainly very interesting. We ended up with eight kids in total, ranging from 6-9 of age—one 6 year-old, two 7 year-olds, four 8 year-olds, and one 9 year-old—so the age range wasn’t as wide as it could have been if it was 6-11. We started out at the Fernwood Community Centre (FCC), and had the kids make nametags as they came in. Once everyone had arrived we played a garden name-game—everyone had to introduce themselves, give the name of something in a garden that begins with the same letter as their name, and do an action to go along with it, which we all then repeated—The intention of this game was to not only introduce everyone, but get everyone relaxed (kids and counselors alike!) and thinking about what can be found in a garden right of the bat.
After introductions we read the kids the beginning of the story “Sandra’s Sunflower” about Sandra who wanted to plant a sunflower and so she threw it onto a rock, only to have a bird swoop down and snatch it up. We then asked the kids what Sandra should have done differently, and then walked the two blocks from the FCC to the Compost Education Centre (CEC) and had them locate a spot in the many garden beds where they would have planted their sunflower seed. The kids definitely seemed to enjoy getting to run around and find a spot, and then explain to everyone why they chose the spot they did.
After this it was lunch. I have to comment on the kids’ lunches as both I and the other two volunteer counselors noticed the same thing: the kids had some of the worst lunches I have ever seen! I’m a parent and I have to pack my son’s snack and lunch everyday before he heads to school, so I understand that providing a lunch that is both nutritious and enjoyable is not always as easy as you would think. But these kids had things like Jelly Bellies jelly beans, Hershey Kisses, Brownies, yoghurt tubes (!!), string cheese (!!!), power bars, and gummy bears in the lunches. It struck me as ironic that the parents had the foresight to sign their kids up for a camp about gardening and essentially food security, yet packed some of the worst processed and nutritionally questionable items in their lunches. I know from experience that if you don’t put sweets or things like string cheese in a kid’s lunch then they will eat what you do put in there.
After lunch we gave a puppet show on composting that was very well received (thanks in no small part to some of the voices provided by yours truly…). We then started a worm bin with the kids, and put some of the compostable items from their lunches in it, which we would continue to do throughout the week. Finally, we started a batch of compost tea with the kids with compost and assorted greenery (nettles, dandelions, etc.) from around the CEC, with the intention of sending the kids home with a jarful at the end of the week.
With that day one was done, and the kids headed home, educated about composting and hopefully thinking about things and passing their knowledge in to their parents!
No comments:
Post a Comment