2019 Spring Farm Sprouts – Week #4 Wednesday AM

This week we began thinking about garden design and perspective as we prepare to visit our educational garden next week, where Farm Sprouts will dig in deep to explore their questions and ideas related to growing and designing healthy gardens. Garden design and map-making, in particular, continues to be a point of interest.

We experienced beautiful spring weather for our fourth week of the program! The farm is in full bloom. Farm Sprouts voted for apple or cherry blossoms and harvested an asparagus spear with their name on it to sign in this week. A photo of two of our favorite farmers, Will and Darby, accompanied the sign in activity to prepare Farm Sprouts for visiting the C.S.A. field to harvest their snack. We also welcomed our newest bunny family, a mother rabbit with eight kits. They give us the opportunity to develop skills related to the care of other living creatures and to developing our understanding of the characteristics and needs of mammals, as our kits nurse, rest, and play. We danced the “Bunny Hop” by Patty Shukla in honor of our newest additions to the farm community this spring.

Farm Sprouts peeked at maps, photos, globes, and other tools and objects related to mapping and design. Our Audubon birds helped us consider the meaning behind the phrase: bird’s eye view! We’ve been thinking about birds quite a bit lately, so it was fun to consider how the world might appear through the eyes of a bird. We read the book, Duck, Rabbit by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, giggling at whether we thought we were seeing a duck or a rabbit! We’ve visited the platform in the Children’s Garden to see how the farm looks from that point of view.

In the Sakura Garden, our Japanese cherry orchard, Farm Sprouts had time to play as birds, to construct farm and Sakura garden small worlds in a trough or utilizing a variety of special materials. They could play as birds with the nests and wings they created.

In the C.S.A. field, Farm Sprouts had the opportunity to harvest asparagus with our Sustainable Agriculture team. Farmers Will, Darby, and Gwen rotated as they were available from field work to interact with and support Farm Sprouts with this fun task. Asparagus is a perennial crop and Michigan is 2nd in the nation for production. To read more, visit: https://www.canr.msu.edu/asparagus/ Farm Sprouts munched on raw, freshly harvested asparagus accompanied by organic round crackers with pecorino romano cheese, an Italian cheese made from sheep’s milk. As we work with our animals and explore concepts related to food systems, we develop our understanding of mammals and their products, which includes milk we can utilize to make cheese. Farm Sprouts will know where their food comes from!

A favorite reminder taped up above Ms. Brooke’s desk
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