The 3rd graders embarked on an afternoon walk to the San Francisco Botanical Gardens two weeks ago to supplement their learning about Native Americans and their use of plants in daily life. All 3 classes trekked through the Native Plants Garden, the Redwood Forest, and the Children’s Garden. In the Native Plants Garden, we talked about what it means to be native and identified a few samples of California Native Plants and their uses by the Ohlone people, such as Manzanita, Cow Parsnip, Tule Reeds, Cattail, Ceanothus, and California Poppies. Students then had a chance to start making rope out of Cattails.
Back in our own school garden for the next class session, we identified and explored some of the many types of CA Native Plants in our very own garden. Students had a chance to use the plants hands on by pounding their own acorn mush under our Oak tree, trying to make soap out of Ceanothus flowers, and searching for and recording 3 types of CA native plants in the garden. A big thank you to Annette Huddle at the SF Botanical Garden for helping to coordinate our self-guided walk, to Arden Bucklin-Sporer for the collection/donation of acorns, and to all the teachers and chaperones who came along for the field trip.