The Kitchen and Garden Extensions

Ever since the start of our school, now 17 years back, I've found so much value in supporting a kitchen and garden program. I often joke, but it's not a joke, to visiting parents  that if we amputated the rest of the school and kept only the kitchen and garden it would still make a complete Montessori program. Originally, our vision was inspired by Alice Waters' Edible Schoolyard program, although considerably leaner in scope! We offer home baked snack and lunch at school every day, along with all the learning that can come from working in a kitchen and garden. Over time and after many mistakes we've arrived at what now seems to be a sustainable, affordable, and replicable program. 

The kitchen garden represents a chunk of spending- an extra staff member, grocery bills, water bills, and the effort and expenses of maintaining what is essentially a classroom area, plus a small restaurant and garden. Yet I've never doubted it's worth. It dovetails beautifully with the Montessori philosophy as natural extensions of it. It's a privilege to be able to offer these aspects at our school, I humbly recognize that. 

The position of the Kitchen Garden Assistant is very dynamic and involves a balance of time and resources to stock-maintain-run a kitchen, daily garden tasks, and recycling and compost maintenance.  All of it done with the central focus of child education. While there are aspects of the work that can't involve the children (yet) like the grocery runs and daily garden watering (which is a one hour task done before school begins), the curriculum of the Kitchen Garden we've arrived at offers an ideal vision of the possible extent of children's involvement in these extensions.

There are three main environments involved in the work: the food preparation area of the classroom, the kitchen, and the garden. The food preparation area of the classroom is set up by the Assistant before the work period begins. The kitchen and garden work are accessible to children who choose two "kitchen necklaces" which are placed outside the kitchen door, inviting anyone available to choose them. This allows the Kitchen Garden Assistant more control over her own time management. 

(Food Preparation Area at the end of the photo leading into the Kitchen)

I've outlined the children's work in the Kitchen Garden below.

 FOOD PREPARATION AREA

This area is part of our classroom and comprises three shelves. It is located just outside the kitchen door. The exercises that can be done regularly and without adult intervention after they are presented. They are made with cost effective ingredients and materials that provide either an individual or collective benefit for the group. 

Introduction to food preparation: Tray with hand sanitizer, hung up aprons, and a separate tray with cleanup materials (sponge, cloths, vinegar spray, dustpans, mop).

Bird Feeding and Animal Care exercises:

Bird Seed Feeder, Nectar Feeder, Bird Fruit Feeder, Filling the Bird Bath, Washing the Bird Bath, Feeding the Composting Worms

Communal Food Preparation exercises:

Tea Making, Popsicle Making

Baking or Cooking exercises:

Weekly Playdough Making, Snack baking, Birthday Cake Making

Lunch Preparation exercises (done in the classroom):

Peeling vegetables, Folding the kitchen cloth napkins

Classroom Shared Snack exercises:

Butter Making, Butter Spreading on crackers, Chopping and Sharing vegetable or fruit, Kefir Making, Tangerine Peeling and sharing

Individual Snack exercises:

Nut cracking, Olive pitting

Plant fertilizing exercises:

Egg shell crushing (wash egg shells first!), Watering plants with worm compost

KITCHEN WORK

Work that can be done in the kitchen by the children with minimal adult assistance after they are presented. They are offered by the Kitchen Garden Assistant as needed. 

Tasks include:

Lunch Preparation (basic cooking skills): washing vegetables, stirring and mixing things, spreading,  pouring, scooping, tearing with hands, peeling, basic knife skills, cutting leaves or herbs with scissors, measuring, counting ingredients, 

Snack baking: assist in the making of daily snack 

Hygiene and cleanup: (washing hands before and after food work), wiping counters and surfaces, unloading and loading the dishwasher

Lunch room preparation: take down chairs, spray and wipe tables, spray and wipe chairs, set tables, fill water cups, set up washing station, mop lunchroom, sweep lunchroom

Laundry: fold laundry

Rain gear organization: put away boots, put away rain jackets, hang rain jackets, put out rain boots

Sustainability work: sort recycling, take out recycling, take out compost, water plants with rain water barrel water, prepare the worm food, collect worm paper, put leaves in compost

GARDEN WORK

These are exercises that are presented to the children by the Kitchen Garden assistant. Eventually they can be carried out by the children with minimal if any adult assistance. Occasional special garden tasks can be offered on particular days.

Exercises include:

Sweeping the front and back of the school, Taking out the compost to the compost tumblers, Washing the two outdoor picnic tables, Cleaning the two outdoor big chalkboards, Fertilizing the tree nursery/herb garden/flowers with whey/compost tea, Raking Leaves and putting them in the compost tumblers, Picking up (removing) rocks in the garden and back garden, Picking up sticks (removing) in the garden and back garden, Harvesting fruit to share, Collecting the sandbox toys, Collecting the trucks and mud pit tools, Rake the sandbox, Watering plants with rain barrel water.