WOW! We can’t believe that Water Camp is already halfway over! Time truly flies when you’re having fun!
We did all of the animal chores this morning. The animals are always grateful for a little attention!
A Green Pepper feeds Duke his morning bottle.
A Green Pepper feeds Calvin.
Green Peppers take turns feeding Calvin.
Orange Peppers hang out with the chickens.
Checking out the chickens.
We made pancakes and homemade butter with Ms. Pam during Garden Kitchen. The recipe can be found at the end of this post.
Orange Peppers mix up their pancake batter.
Red Peppers approve of the pancakes!
We did an activity called The Long Haul. People in some parts of the world do not have running water, and they have to walk long distances to haul water to their homes. Transporting We got just a glimpse of that daily struggle for drinkable water. We used a wooden yoke to carry two buckets of water back and forth between two locations. It was a great challenge!
A Red Pepper practices carrying water with the yoke.
Red Peppers race against the clock.
A Yellow Pepper uses her hands to transport water from one bucket to another.
We spent time in the garden talking about transpiration and how plants release water vapor back into the atmosphere. We also harvested some vegetables and greens with Mr. Brendan’s help!
Orange Peppers pick a few veggies to take home while Mr. Brendan supervises.
Harvesting broccoli!
We went for a hike around the farm and discussed riparian zones, or the banks of a body of water. These banks are a sort of buffer zone and are composed of plants and soil that pulls pollutants and toxins from water as is moves through the riparian zone. Riparian buffer zones are a valuable part of the water cycle. We looked at a few different parts of our river/pond system and compared them to each other.
Yellow Peppers talk with Ms. Erika about riparian zones and their functions.
We did an activity called the Common Water Game. This game involved competing for scarce water resources. We talked about how both animals and people use the same resources, and if one group uses more than their share of water, it can cause shortages for other groups and/or decrease the quality of the water source. Ask your camper what tools and strategies were most effective during this game!
Yellow Peppers race to collect water from the common water source.
Carrying water back to their home base.
Orange Peppers mapping possible sources of water pollution.
Ms. Pam cooked up some corn and spinach quesadillas for our afternoon Garden Kitchen snack. Campers had to help clean the spinach and read the recipe to Ms. Pam. The recipe was printed on the recipe card for today and can also be found at the end of this post.
Orange Peppers help Ms. Pam assemble their quesadillas.
Green Peppers sample their snack.
Orange Peppers help prepare spinach for their snack.
We continued to work on our STEM boat building project. Marshmallows were added to the available resources today, and they proved to be both helpful and harmful to the overall design; once wet, the marshmallows got soggy and heavy, but if they stayed dry, they were great flotation devices. Ask your camper how their boat design is coming along!
Red Peppers work on their boats.
A Red Pepper gets creative with his boat design.
Yellow Peppers collaborate on their boat projects.
Green Peppers test their boats.
We sent home a parent evaluation at pick-up today. We invite you to take a moment to talk through the questions and give us some feedback. We truly value your input at we continue developing curriculum and programming in the future. You can return the evaluation any time before the end of the week. Thank you in advance!
We’ve got a ton of activities to do during the last two days of Water Camp, and it’s sure to be a blast! Don’t forget to send a bathing suit and towel with your camper on Friday – we’re doing a water slide as our closing activity!
Buttermilk Pancakes
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. Baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
3 Tbs. sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
3 cups of buttermilk
4 Tbs. melted butter
Blueberries (optional)
Directions
- Heat griddle to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Whisk together all dry ingredients
- In a separate bowl, whisk all wet ingredients.
- Combine the two bowls, batter should be lumpy after combining.
- Ladle out ½ cup portions onto griddle, leaving two inches of space in between. Flip after 2 ½ minutes or so. Cook another minute. Repeat.
Spinach and Corn Quesadillas
Ingredients
4 cups torn baby spinach
1 cup whole kernel corn
4 8” whole wheat tortillas
1 cup reduced fat shredded cheddar cheese
½ cup salsa
¼ cup sour cream
Directions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Heat large nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Coat with cooking spray. Add spinach and corn and sauté 1 to 2 minutes, until it wilts.
- Coat 1 side of tortilla with cooking spray. Place tortillas coated side down on a large baking sheet. Top evenly with spinach mixture and cheese. Fold in half and press firmly down.
- Bake for 10 minutes or until the tortillas are crisp and cheese melts. Cut into 4 wedges.