Fruit and Vegetable Personal Interest Projects

For the past week or so, we have been working on our first Personal Interest Project (PIP) as we worked alongside Project Chef learning about food education. After watching this video called Austin's Butterfly, we worked hard to draw our drawings as close to the "real item" as we could. We made many drafts and requested and accepted feedback from our classmates.  Our drawings only continued to get better each time. This week we presented our projects to our classmates and provide student feedback to one another.  Here are a few of our finished projects.

Have you ever done a personal interest project?

It's Quesadilla Time!

On Friday we had our fourth and final Project Chef session in the "Project Chef" kitchen.  On our final day, we had many things to do including chopping and preparing vegetables for homemade salsa, preparing cheese, making guacamole, and preparing and cooking quesadillas.  We also learned about healthy foods and that it is so important that we know the ingredients in the foods that we eat.  On Friday's meal, we knew them all!  Here are some photos from our Friday session.



While quesadillas are often seen as snack food, for many of us they were a delicious meal.  Have you ever made them in your home?

Project Chef Day 3 - A Balanced Meal

Yesterday was our third day in the Project Chef Kitchen at our school. The focus of this day was to look at what makes up a balanced meal. Having this important information we got down to work making dough for homemade tortillas and making "Make You Strong" salad.  As we made our salad we tasted each ingredient. We really liked some of the ingredients.  Here are some photos from our morning of cooking.

A Visit with Lori Snyder

Today was quite a fabulous day because not only did we have Project Chef in the morning, we also had a visit with Lori Snyder this afternoon.  She spent some time talking with us in the classroom before we headed outside to look for and learn about important plants that are native to this part of Canada. Many of the plants she shared with us had important healing properties.

Lori is talking to us about her history.

This is Yarrow. Indigenous people have used this to help stop bleeds.   Yarrow oil has medicinal properties. 

This is Licorice Fern.  The roots have special medicinal properties too.

We tried some fennel seeds.  They tasted a bit like black licorice.  They are good to have when your tummy is upset.

We also saw a Ginko Biloba Tree and learned that its leaves (when they are green) can be used to make a tea that is good for the eyes and the brain.

These are just a few of the plants we learned about with Lori and the coolest part is that they grow right on our school grounds.  You'll have to have Lori visit your area so she can teach you about your plants. 

Do you know about the local plants in your area? What do you do to keep them safe and growing?  Remember it's always important to ask an adult before you try a fruit or plant growing in the wild.  Healthy food is usually food you've grown yourself.

Project Chef Day Two - Breakfast!

Wow, today sure was another busy day in the Project Chef kitchen. The focus of today's meal was breakfast. We learned many things about healthy grains and breakfasts.  On the cooking agenda were Whole-Grain Pancakes with Very Berry Blueberry Sauce.  Take a peek...

Can you tell by our faces that our pancakes and blueberry sauce were delicious?  Apparently, many of us had nice big blueberry smiles.  Have you ever made pancakes at home? What tips and tricks do you have for us?