This fall, we invited the first graders at Claire Lilienthal Elementary School to join us in the Presidio of San Francisco’s MacArthur Garden for a Healthy Kids extravaganza.
After a short “hike” from their school to the garden, the first graders arrived full of excitement and anticipation. We began with a lesson on edible plant parts, where one student transformed from a six-year-old boy into a plant as he dressed up in our plant parts costume. As he “grew” each new plant part we discussed examples that we eat: carrots for the roots, celery for the stem, spinach for the leaves, and the list goes on.
Next, we embarked on a scavenger hunt in search of fruits, vegetables, herbs, and insects. We discovered carrots, radishes, kale, yellow squash, lettuce, and basil growing in the garden beds and saw ladybugs and bumblebees buzzing about.
Presidio gardeners Jean and Taylor led the group in sowing fava beans. The group filled cups with soil (finding lots of earthworms wiggling through the soil) and planted fava beans seeds “twice as deep as they are thick,” as instructed by Jean. Then, they labeled their cups with the plant name and the date.
Finally, we washed hands with the garden hose spigot and got to cooking. With the help of Bon Appétit Chef Nate, the kids learned how to make garden tacos and fall fruit kabobs. Chef Nate and the kids prepared a colorful homemade salsa, adding in tomatoes picked fresh from the garden beds. The kids assembled their tacos and gobbled them up immediately, remarking that all the colorful vegetable were making them stronger and smarter.
Using Chef Nate’s knife safety tip to hold their hands like a bird claw to protect their fingertips, our little chefs chopped strawberries, Asian pears, and cantaloupe and threaded the fruit pieces onto kabob sticks. After eating our kabobs it was time to say goodbye. The kids assembled in a single file line and chanted “Best Day Ever!” as they left the garden and marched back to school.