As part of our science learning, students recently designed and built their own solar cookers, exploring concepts such as solar energy, materials science, and changes in states of matter. This hands-on project encouraged them to think about how renewable energy can be harnessed to solve real-world problems, especially in communities with limited access to conventional cooking fuels.

To spark curiosity, students watched a video showing bread being baked in a solar oven. This led to thoughtful discussion about how small changes in technology, like solar cooking, can create big impacts on people’s lives and the environment.

The design challenge — “Can you harness the sun’s energy to melt a s’more?” — immediately captured their excitement. Working in teams, students used cardboard boxes, foil, and plastic to create solar cookers, carefully applying their knowledge of heat transfer and reflection. They eagerly tested and adjusted their designs, hoping to see their chocolate melt within the 30-minute timeframe.

Throughout the activity, students showed high levels of collaboration, problem solving, and creativity. The STEM design process guided their thinking, reminding them that improvement and reflection are just as important as the final product.

By the end of the session, students confidently explained how different materials affect heat capture and proudly shared their working solar cookers. Their engagement, enthusiasm, and enjoyment were clear, making this a memorable and meaningful learning experience.

Throughout the year, our Kitchen Garden program menu reflects special events in the Jewish calendar. When preparing and sharing these dishes, our students experience and connect with each festival.

Last week to celebrate the festival of Purim, students joyfully baked Hamanthashen for the whole school community. A total of 1297 Hamanthashen were baked for staff, students and parents to enjoy!

These sweet treats are filled with symbolism and are absolutely delicious! You can find the recipe listed under ‘sweets’ in the Recipes tab above.

Teamwork is when you work together to accomplish a goal or a project. We used teamwork when we planted fruits and vegetables, to get everything done and in the correct place.

Our favourite memories are: Finding potatoes and pulling them out together, planting the cabbages, sorting and pulling out the beans – that really took all of us, and when we came back to school after the holidays and saw how much everything had grown.

There is no I in teamwork.

Teamwork is a crucial part of our garden lessons, because not only does it create a fun and inclusive environment, but it also shows the power of productiveness and teamwork.

Three of our favourite things from this garden semester are: Picking/harvesting different vegetables from our beds eg; pumpkins and eggplants. Learning about the variety’s of fruits and vegetables from our garden that we get to eat in kitchen. Being able to have the privilege and responsibility to have control over our own garden bed.

Audrey, Sunshine, Scarlett, Zac, Harvey and Ilai.

Harvesting is a process of collecting plants.

Harvesting all the delicious vegetables, fruit and herbs to cook amazing meals in the kitchen.

Our favourite memories from this semester are: finding a lot of potato’s that were all connected, Finding a ginormous zucchini, when it was a super hot day Julie turned the sprinklers on for us to cool down.

By Ethan, Ben, Lizie, Mika and Leah.

A word that describes garden is mulch because we use so much of it. We also use mulch for keeping plants warm.

A phrase that describes garden and our time is “teamwork makes the dream work” in the garden and the kitchen program because we will never get a good result without teamwork. We have limited time, and we have to harvest, plant, mulch and clean.

A sentence that is meaningful to us would be “Recycling makes reproduction” because it repurposes important recourses to help us survive. In recycling it has re- which means redo, cycle means a lifespan in an ongoing process.

Everything we harvest is organic and fresh.

This term we figured out that teamwork will get the job done faster and better. We have limited time and lots to do such as mulching, harvesting, and planting.

We cook what we harvest. In our kitchen we use our own produce, it is always organic and fresh.

By blue group

As the green group, we love visiting our garden bed. Because the steps to looking after our bed are really a lot of fun they include fertilizing to give the plants nutrients, harvesting the seasonal produce, planting seeds and seedlings (small plants with 4-5 small leaves) and spreading mulch across the soil to keep it warm and moist. We also love visiting the chooks and learning about their lifecycle.

Year 4 and 5 students have been very busy this term learning lots of new skills and cooking delicious recipes using fresh produce they’ve grown and harvested in our Kitchen Garden.

This term Year 4 students have learnt about food safety, safe knife handling skills and practised the following techniques while preparing fruits and vegetables from the garden: the bridge, bear claw, rock and chop techniques. They have also learnt to identify many fruits and vegetables and prepared them in a variety of recipes. It is so lovely to see students enthusiastically tasting new dishes and flavours with their peers. This is what pleasurable food education is all about!

Year 5 students are building on the skills learnt so far in the program with recipes that are more complicated and challenging. All classes are rising to the challenge with great enthusiasm and having lots of fun in the process! Students are making lots of cross curricular links while learning in the Kitchen with Science, Maths, English, Jewish studies and so much more!

Volunteers are make such a valuable contribution to our program. It’s such great way to observe student learning in action. We are so appreciative to all those who have volunteered their time to help in our Kitchen and Garden classes so far this term. Parents, grandparents, family and friends are all welcome to sign up! If you’d like to join one of our classes, please click on the VOLUNTEERS tab at the top of the home page.

Today in our kitchen garden lesson, we dug deep into the world of root vegetables! Carrots, potatoes, and beetroots where harvested and the funny-shaped carrots where fascinating. It was like uncovering hidden treasures right in our school garden! We learned that these veggies need plenty of space to stretch their roots and grow big and tasty.

We are preparing for our autumn and winter crop by planting broccoli, cauliflower and onions. They are companion plants because they provide various benefits to each other when grown together in the garden. For example, onions emit a pungent scent that repels pests like aphids, which are known to attack broccoli and cauliflower. In turn, broccoli and cauliflower produce chemicals that deter pests that commonly target onions, such as onion flies. This natural pest control helps all three plants thrive without the need for harmful chemical pesticides.

Additionally, the different root structures of these plants allow them to occupy different levels of soil, reducing competition for nutrients. Onions have shallow roots, while broccoli and cauliflower develop deeper root systems. This allows them to effectively utilize nutrients from different layers of the soil without competing directly with each other. By growing together, they optimize the use of available space and resources in the garden, promoting healthier growth and higher yields for all three crops.