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We had a wonderful time at our year-end garden celebration last Saturday! What a great turn-out!
We made tree-round necklaces…
Painted insect masks with natural dyes…
Made seed balls and butter…
Got our faces painted…
And ate lots of great food!
HUGE thank you to all of our parent and staff volunteers, without whom this event would not have been possible: Ken Chiang, Sharon Chow, Jackie Fung, Anni Griswold, Severa Keith, Stella Kong, Deborah Kwan, Daniel Leong, Theresa Leung, Angela Lew, Laura Ling, Michael Logue, Jennifer Louie, Pauline Ly, Charlotte Moore, Ken Pang, Marybeth Pudup, Pam Schute, Lucia Su, Lisa Wan, Wayne Yen, and Kristine Yu. Thanks also to all of our wonderful student volunteers, and to Arizmendi for the generous donation of bread!
We have been fortunate to attend many wonderful field trips this year. For the first time, second grade students visited Slide Ranch!
First, we all picked nature names (some were inspired by the plants all around us!)
Then we visited the chickens and fed them treats…
Next we made bracelets out of sheep wool…
And then we visited the sheep and goats!
We learned from experience that goats are herd animals…
Overall it was a wonderful trip! And, because we ate some sweet berries…
We were sure to brush our teeth at the end of the day with the “toothbrush plant”!
Third grade students also went on several fun field trips this year. In the fall, we made the short trek from AFY to the San Francisco Botanical Garden.
We visited the Redwood Grove, Children’s Garden and Native Plant Garden.
In the Native Plant Garden, we learned about some of the ways the Ohlone People used California native plants. We began by examining tule stems, noting the air channels within the stems that make them light and buoyant as well as the the waxy, water resistant outer coating. Many students correctly guessed that the Ohlone people used tule stems to make boats.
We then compared the tule to cattail, which has much different properties. We learned that the thin leaves were stripped and twisted to make rope and other cordage.
Then we visited a ceanothus plant, and learned that the Ohlone people crushed the blue flowers and rubbed them in water to make soaps and shampoos.
Next, we looked at our state flower, the California Poppy. We learned that the roots of this flower contain a pain reliever, and that the Ohlone people mashed the root to apply it to aching teeth.
On the final stop in the Native Plant Garden, we learned one reason tooth aches may have been common…
Acorns were the staple food for the Ohlone people, and it’s thought that grinding the acorns in a grinding stone caused small pieces of rock to be incorporated in the acorn meal, leading to cracked and decaying teeth.
After learning this, every student had the chance to grind an acorn for him or herself.
The acorns that the students used for grinding came from an oak tree in Sacramento, CA (pictured left, below). Many students used their sharp observation skills to find acorns that had dropped from the oak trees in the Botanical Garden (pictured right), and compared the two.
Finally, we got to taste a piece of acorn bread!
The bread was a hit! As was the park…
We couldn’t wait to return to the Botanical Garden in the spring! For our second trip, the Youth Stewardship Program showed us around the Stow Lake Boathouse.
Along the way, we learned about some of the plants in the area and did a little weeding to help clean up the park.
Looking forward to more fun field trips next year!
Thank you to the San Francisco Botanical Garden Youth Education Program for the “Native People, Native Plants” field trip guide, and to Slide Ranch and Youth Stewardship Program for the wonderful trips!
Last month we celebrated Earth Day!
We kicked off our celebration in March with our Cool The Earth campaign. Big thank you to the Lincoln High School students who performed during the assembly!
During the four weeks following the assembly, students made Earth-friendly pledges like taking shorter showers, powering down video games and using reusable water bottles.
Meanwhile in class, K-2 students learned about Earth’s natural resources and sorted different items into three categories: fossil fuels, plants & animals and minerals.
They decided that some of the objects, like the pencil below, fell into all three categories!
After sorting the items provided, they searched the garden for other objects to categorize. (Some were quite mysterious!)
After learning where common materials come from, we learned about where they all go. First graders learned how landfills are made, and found out what it would be like if we were to turn our beloved sand pit into a landfill.
First they dug a hole to bury the trash…
Then we emptied our black bin into the hole (to the tune of many mouths squealing “eeeewwwwwww!”) It was not a pleasant visual! We all agreed that we wouldn’t want to turn our sand pit into a landfill, and pledged to reduce our waste. Then everyone helped sort the waste and clean up the sand pit.
Meanwhile, third graders learned how human behaviors affect living things on Earth. First, they learned how other animals change the environment. They listened to a story about beavers, then acted as the beavers by building dams!
They poured water in the “rivers” that they’d built and observed how their dams affected the flow of the water…
Then imagined how this would affect the other plants and animals in the environment…
And recorded what they learned from the activity in comic strips!
We all agreed that, like beavers, humans can also change the environment. We read the book, “Is this Panama?” by Jan Thornill, about a Wilson’s warbler making his first migratory journey to Panama… 
Then all of the students turned into Wilson’s warblers on their own migratory journeys! They started in Canada…
Then hopped their way to Panama!
We played several rounds. After each round, human activity changed the environment, destroying some of the warbler’s stopover points. Sidewalk squares marked with an “X” were stopover points that had been destroyed, so students could no longer land in those squares on their way to Panama.
Our population of Wilson’s warblers slowly declined, until there were so few stopover points, no one was able to survive the journey!
After playing the game, students recorded the results in their science notebooks.
All K-3 students wrapped up the Earth Day unit by making Earth Day flags.
Parents Jackie Fung and Raelynn Hickey generously donated their time to attach all 264 flags to string so we could display them. Big thank you to both of them! The flags look great in our garden!
Kindergarteners continued their Earth Day celebration by releasing monarch butterflies! Ms. Chiu-Sakamoto generously donated caterpillars from her garden. The students observed the caterpillars as they turned into chrysalises, and finally, into butterflies!
It was very exciting watching them fly away!
One even stayed with us for several minutes. Many students declared, “It’s because it likes us too much!”
We celebrated the butterflies with a garden snack. Students made “caterpillars” out of Cheerios, then stuck them to sorrel leaves with honey.
After making the caterpillars they wrapped them up into chrysalises and ate them!
4th and 5th graders were not excluded from the Earth Day festivities- they celebrated by making recycled paper!
They pressed pulp (newspaper + water) into shapes…
Then added flower petals for decoration. Some also added flower seeds with plans to plant their paper later!
On April 22 (Earth Day!) we had a bike/roll/walk to school day (Congratulations to Ms. Chow’s class for winning the Golden Sneaker Award!)…
And also announced the results from our Cool The Earth campaign. Our students made 1,621 Earth-friendly pledges, saving 1,084,541 pounds of carbon!
While celebrating on April 22, one student asked, “Isn’t every day Earth Day?” Here at Alice Fong Yu, we definitely believe this is true! All year we’ve been learning ways to help protect our planet, with help from SF Environment.
They presented two great assemblies (“Our Water” and “Food to Flowers”) and trained our compost monitors.
Our compost monitors have set an example all year, and everyone has done a great job taking steps to protect our planet.
Thank you to SF Environment for helping our school celebrate Earth Day every day!
We were fortunate to work with the Planet Bee Foundation again this year!
Their team taught several wonderful pollination lessons to our kindergarten, first, third and fifth graders. Kindergarten and first graders enjoyed observing a frame from our school’s bee hive…
And had fun identifying the different parts of dead bees.
Then they learned the basics of pollination through a fun game.
Each student received a pipe cleaner bee, and searched the garden for flowers to pollinate.
After finding a flower their bees were covered in pollen…
Then they returned to their “bee hive” (egg carton) to deposit the pollen into cells.
Second graders played a different pollination game from the wonderful “Garden at School” blog. Ms. Lam and I wore flower signs around our necks with bags of “pollen” (orange or purple cotton balls) attached. The student “bees” visited one flower for a sip of nectar (apple juice), then took some pollen with them as they left. Then they visited the other flower, where their pollen “rubbed off,” successfully pollinating both flowers!
After acting out pollination through this game, the students recorded what they learned in a comic strip!
Third and fifth graders also looked at the observation hive and learned more about the honey bee life cycle…
While our middle school Green Club students extracted honey from the frames! They scraped off the wax…
Then strained the honey over the weekend…
And finally, we put the honey in jars! We had enough honey for every student to take one home (and then some!) It was delicious!
Big thank you to Planet Bee for all that they did for our school this year! If your school is interested in having a Planet Bee workshop or hosting a hive, apply here!
This winter and spring, kindergarteners learned all about trees. They began with a song to learn the basic tree parts:
Tree Parts Song
(sing to the tune of “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes”)
Roots, trunk, branches, leaves (branches, leaves!)
Roots, trunk, branches, leaves (branches, leaves!)
Roots and trunks and branches and leaves
These are the parts of a tree!
We compared these tree parts on our apple and oak trees. Then students made tree nature art to take home!
Next, students took a closer look at leaves. They did a leaf rubbing with crayons, then hunted for different leaf shapes in the garden.
The following week, the students took a closer look at tree trunks, counting tree rings to determine the age of the trees when they were cut down.
Earlier in the school year, student observed our apple tree. We revisited the tree to see how it had changed since the fall. (Everyone was a little disappointed at the lack of apples, but we’re looking forward to tasting them again next fall!)
Finally, we discussed some of the things that trees give us. We read the wonderful book, “The Giving Tree” by Shel Silverstein.
Then everyone painted wood signs for our garden!
Finally, we tasted (and smelled!) different foods that come from trees. We tasted walnuts, bananas and oranges…
Smelled cinnamon…
And finally, tried chocolate chips! (The favorite, of course!)
The most exciting part of this lesson was that we got to sit at our brand new seating circle made from tree stumps! Big thank you to Theo Carroll for helping with the installation!
Thank you to everyone who supported Green Club’s farmers market! What a success!
Want more produce? Students and families are always welcome to harvest before or after school! Contact Ms. Owyang to make arrangements: kowyang@educationoutside.org
1st graders have been learning all about the things that animals need to make homes in different habitats.
They loved learning about worms earlier in the year, and were excited to search for other animals that make homes in our garden habitat!
(Thank you to Ad Walker, fellow Corps Member at Peabody Elementary for the wonderful worksheet!)
Next, they got up close and personal with our beloved garden snails. We read a great book, “Are You a Snail?” by Judy Allen and Tudor Humphries…
And then built a special habitat suited to meet all of a snail’s survival needs.
Some of the ever-curious students wanted to know if the snails could balance on sticks, so they put on their scientist caps to find out. They were very excited to discover the answer and exclaimed, “they’re acro-snails!”
Next, we learned about birds. The students put on their imaginary bird wings and made a shelter for baby bird (Ms. Owyang!) They also gathered food for baby bird and brought it back to the nest!
After playing our game with imaginary birds we made binoculars…
and observed real birds in our garden!
Even though our binoculars did not have any magnifying lenses, they helped the students spot many birds in the trees!
Finally, we made bird feeders!
They coated their toilet paper rolls in Crisco…
Then covered them in bird seed…
And reached high to hang them in our trees!
(For detailed instructions on how to make these bird feeders see our original post here.)
To conclude our animal habitats unit we read, “What’s Your Favorite Animal?” by Eric Carle and Friends.
We all loved the animals in the book, and were inspired by the make-believe animal on the cover to create our own nature art animals (along with the food and shelter they needed to survive!)
It was a fun unit for everyone!
Education Outside helps public-school students of all backgrounds develop science skills, a love for nature, healthy eating habits, and environmental awareness. Learn more at www.educationoutside.org.
Education Outside at AFY 
