Another Field Trip

Today I went with Leiden's class on a field trip to the Landscape Arboretum.  They have an education center there that does a really well put together experience for kids. 

 

I sat with Leiden and her friend, Nadya, on the bus.

 

 

We got there and immediately ate lunch, then had a small presentation about plants.  Then we separated into groups for the rest of the time.  First up for our group was making garlic toast.  I didn't know this, but you can eat the green shoots that grow off the top of a planted garlic bulb.  They still taste like garlic, just less intense.  Step one:  snip the garlic top.

 

 

Step two:  mash it into the butter.

 

 

Step three:  bake, step four: eat!

 

 

Then the kids got to each plant their own garlic bulb to take home and hopefully grow for more garlic toast!  (It was really good.)

 

 

 

The last segment was done in the touching greenhouse.  This means that the kids are encouraged to touch all the plants!  They even told them the correct way to touch cacti!  Now, if you look to the right of the picture, you can see a tiny little pineapple growing!  I don't know why, but it was fascinating.  We also saw banana flowers that will eventually grow into bananas, and a sleeping tree frog. 

 

 

And Leiden correctly touched a cactus.

 

 

Just like with Mac's class, it was so fun to go with Leiden and hang out with her--and I was surprised at how quickly my 'teacher' instincts kicked in--keeping kids in line and behaving!

 

We'll be heading back out to the arboretum during March sometime, when they tap their maple trees and there are presentations for families centered around that.