Monday, July 7, 2014

Community Service Project with Woodbadge March 2014

We had Woodbadge returning for another service project this year at the Living Classroom!  Their group spent the day doing many tasks in the orchard: weeding, mulching, picking up fruit, pruning, fixing irrigation, spraying soap and general clean up.  We are so grateful to them for their hard work and desire to help our program out! Thank you!


Slow Food Ark of Taste Event

We were recently awarded a micro-grant from Slow Food Orange County to purchase materials needed to expand our growing spaces in our Living Classroom.  We couldn't be anymore thrilled for this generous gift and to say thank you the wwoofs and I volunteered at one of their recent events.

Slow Food OC and SEEDS partnered up to host an evening dedicated to food items on the Ark of Taste directory at the Annelise School in Laguna Beach.  If you are not familiar with these organizations, I encourage you to check them out!  All work hard to bring education to the community through food awareness and preservation.  We had a wonderful time setting up for the evening, serving food, meeting new people in the community and of course trying the delicious food be offered.  It was a beautiful night full of great company and hard work dedicated to ensuring future generations have access to these wonderful foods.

Thank you Linda and Slow Food!

Read about Slow Food OC Here
SEEDS Art and Education Here

Photos from the Annelise School




Flower arrangements!



Kristin, Jason and I





Spring Homeschool Session - One of our favorite programs!

Our favorite program in the Life Science department is our Homeschool sessions with k-3 students.  We love this opportunity to work with these little ones for numerous reasons: seeing them every week lends to familiarity between teachers and students, creation of bonds and memories, consistency in curriculum and programming and so much fun!  This group was no exception and we had a wonderful time sharing the wonders of nature with them.

Each week had a theme, ranging from water, to waste/recycling, pollinators, sun/solar power, food, gardening and more.  Our program starts with a quick lecture or activity introducing the topic, time spent in the garden where students plant and care for their own plants and concluding with an art project.  Our Homeschool program was a great success and we are looking forward to accommodating more groups from our surrounding areas.  

Learning about the power of the sun!

Integrated and organic pest management in gardens.

Repurposing our orange rinds for bird feeders!


Using beautiful items in nature to create looms.


Exploring the world around us, even at the smallest level.


Discussing decomposers and their importance in our environments.


A trip to the zoo to learn about native animals and some not so native.


 Seed mosaics!


 Harvesting fruit from the orchard.