Resources

Gardening in OOSH

Spring is the time for sowing seeds which will grow through summer and can be harvested when autumn comes. If you are lucky enough to have a dedicated OOSH centre space you may be able to start your own vegie garden. If not, perhaps you can talk to the School Principal. Maybe the school already has a vegie patch that the OOSH kids can get involved in or perhaps they haven’t thought of it yet and will be happy to go along with the idea!

Gardening teaches kids about:
- Growth and life cycles
- Where our food comes from
- How fresh natural food should taste
- Caring about their environment

Also, kids will not be able to resist eating vegies and herbs they have raised themselves. So gardening can also help to encourage a healthy diet.

Some tips for gardening with kids

Involve them from the beginning
Half the fun is in planning the garden. Let the kids be involved choosing what to plant, and how the garden is divided up. The more involved they are at the outset, the more committed they will be to maintaining the garden.

Choosing the Plants
It’s a good idea to choose vegetables that the kids would like to eat. To keep things easy don’t try too many varieties - just stick to 3-4 different types of plants.
It’s fun to include some flowers as well. Bright flowers at child height, like zinnias and cosmos, will keep them fascinated and also make good choices for cutting and bringing indoors. Sunflowers are also great because of their impressive size, quick growing time and the yummy seeds!

Some of the easier plants to grow in vegetable gardens include cherry tomatoes, beans, zucchini, radishes and carrots. Think ahead about recipes and activities that can be done during harvest time.

Garden Journals
To keep the kids interested until the plants come up, start a centre garden journal. The kids can draw pictures of what they think the plants will look like and make notes about when they planted the seeds and when they first saw a sprout pushing up. The journal can continue throughout the garden season with more notes and pictures of the garden and even the bugs and birds that visit.

If you have Limited Space
Your centre may not have an area in the grounds that you can use, but you can still grow seedlings in pots and allow the kids to take them home to plant. Also, some plants like herbs, cherry tomatoes, and strawberries can be grown exclusively in pots. They may not produce enough for afternoon tea but they will certainly make a tasty addition!

Some herbs that are safe and tasty for kids include:
Mint, chives, coriander, parsley and basil. Basil in particular is easy to grow, hard to kill and can be added to many foods such as sandwiches, pasta and salads. You can even have a go at making your own pesto!

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9 simple things your centre can do to help prevent climate change

Change a lightbulb
Standard light bulbs give off 90 per cent of their energy as heat. New compact fluorescent “spiral” bulbs are 75 per cent more efficient and fit in standard sockets.

Recycle More
You may already recycle paper and glass bottles in the centre but you could think of creative ways of re-using other items such as plastic bags, cardboard rolls, etc.

Avoid products with a lot of packaging
Whenever you are buying food or other products for the centre, try to take into account the amount of packaging and whether or not it can be recycled.
An added benefit is that food with less packaging (e.g. fruit) tends to be less processed and therefore healthier.

Clean or replace filters on your air conditioner
Cleaning a dirty air filter will make your air conditioner more efficient and can save up to 150 kilograms of carbon dioxide a year.

Plant a tree (or two)
A single tree will absorb one ton of carbon dioxide over its lifetime. Shade provided by trees can also reduce the need for air conditioning.

Use public transport
Encourage staff to commit to taking alternative modes of transportation to work at least once a month. This can include options such as car-pooling,
cycling, taking public transport or walking where possible. Think of excursions you can get to by walking in your local area.

Turn off electronic devices when not in use
Turn off the computer, TV, DVD player, etc at the plug overnight, on weekends and school holidays. This not only saves electricity but also protects against power surges.

Replace an old fridge (or get rid of an un-needed fridge)
Refrigerators are an energy-hogging appliance. Replacing a 10-year-old refrigerator with a new energy efficient model would save enough energy to light one home for more than three months.

Buy recycled paper products
Use recycled copier paper, toilet paper and paper towels. It takes less 70 to 90% less energy to make recycled paper and it prevents the loss of forests
worldwide.

Adapted from:
www.climatecrisis.net and www.davidsuzuki.org

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Top Trees for Natural Shade

Lilly Pilly – Acmena smithii
Brush Box – Lophostemon confertus
Chinese Pistachio – Pistacia chinensis
English Oak – Quercus robur
Chinese Tallow – Sapium sebiferum
Chinese Elm – Ulmus parvifolia
Water Gum – Tristania laurina
Crepe Myrtle – Lagerstroemia indica

– from “Playground News” Summer 2005

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A Fantastic Phasmid Fundraiser
By Pat Simmons – Coordinator Gymea Bay Care & Leisure Cetre

As a child I had always loved “creepy crawlies” and when we had an entomologist visit our vacation care centre in 1999, my passion was renewed.

He brought along two female Queensland spiny leaf stick insects. I thought they were wonderful and was able to buy one from our visitor.

I have been keeping stick insects as pets ever since, and in October 2004, I discovered that a far greater number of  ‘spinys’ were hatching than usual – in fact, rather too many to keep.

We were keen to improve our outdoor program at the centre and wanted to start running regular sports clinics two afternoons a week from the beginning of Term 1, 2005.  We were looking forward to being involved in the ‘Active After Schools’ Program, but that wasn’t starting until Term 2 and we were impatient to get started!  But where was the money going to come from?

Thus was born our ‘Phasmid Fund Raiser’. Notices went out to all families – for just $10 you could buy a baby stick insect complete with tank and care sheet.  Orders started coming in. Christmas was coming and the insects were an unusual gift. The response to our fundraiser was amazing. Not only the children, but also adults became hooked on these wonderful critters and were buying them as ‘executive pets’ and to give to other adults. The word spread and several local pre-schools bought them as class pets. By December, we had raised over a thousand dollars and the figure continues to grow. Not only is this a fun way to raise funds, but it has also been a wonderful environmental activity which has increased the children’s respect for, interest in, and knowledge of the insect world.