Hampden School Junior Class

Kids Growing at Hampden School

Wow! What an amazing term it’s been with Miss Spiers and the Junior Class! They are such an inspired and enthusiastic group. As part of the Kids Growing programme at Waitaki Community Gardens, we have been working together to learn about how plants grow, gardening, beneficial bugs, compost and cooking. This is one of our first sessions together after we weeded and planted our raised garden bed:

As you can see, we have a wee puppy named Figo as our garden mascot at Hampden School. The kids have been helping to train him and teach him good manners while he’s at school through positive and negative reinforcement. 

After learning about compost, the Junior Class decided that Hampden School needs a compost bin and asked Mr. Bosker if we can build one. Mr. B brought 4 pallets to school and Sophia helped the class to build it. The children collected layers of brown (dried leaves, straw and sticks) and green (grass clippings, food scraps, and weeds). Then we added some tiger worms as helpers. Here is the team hard at work... C is for Compost!

Another highlight from Term 1 was going on a bug hunt around the school grounds. “We went finding bugs.” --ZJ We found lots of spider webs, 3 earwigs, 2 butterflies, 4 spiders, 5 slaters, 3 honey bees, and 2 bumble bees, as well as lots of flies, 1 wasp, 5 moths, 1 wood louse and 4 white butterflies. As Ra said, “we found some interesting bugs... good ones are spiders, caterpillars, butterflies, bees, and slaters.”

“We learned that honey bees have pockets for pollen on their back leg.” –Maihi

For one of our final sessions in Term 1, we cooked beetroot zucchini fritters.  Here’s the recipe: 1. Grate 3 zucchinis and 1 beetroot. 2. Beat 6 eggs and add salt. 3. Mix veggies, eggs, and add flour until it gets gooey and thick. 4. Add some grated cheese. 5. Spoon patties into the fry pan and turn over to cook both sides.

Kids Growing sessions are 11:30-12:30 on Thursdays. Parent and grandparent helpers are always welcome to join, help and share in the garden or in the kitchen. To volunteer, please contact Sophia at (03) 434 1508 or email waitaki.community.gardens@gmail.com. A special thanks to Miss Spiers and the Junior Class for sharing their enthusiasm and love of learning!

Also thanks to our sponsors for supporting Kids Growing at Hampden School: