• Lot: A piece of land in part of a city, town or block
• Lease: A contract that allows you to pay to use property
• Petition: A formal letter written by a group of people asking for permission to do something or change something
• Rubble: Rough broken pieces of stone or brick from buildings
• Holler: To cry out, shout
• “Hard as Nails”: Very tough

1. Have you ever planted a garden before?
    
2. If you have planted a garden, what did you plant?
    
3. Think of a time when you disagreed with someone. What did you disagree about? What did you do to try to convince the other person that you were right?

Sticky Sesame Cauli Wings

Watch the Video:

Recipe:

Sticky Sesame Cauli Wings
Prep time: 15 minutes | Cook time: 25 minutes | Serves: 6

Wing Ingredients:

• 1 head cauliflower
• ½ cup whole wheat flour or flour of choice
• 1 cup panko bread crumbs
• ½ cup milk of choice (make sure it’s unsweetened!)
• ¼ teaspoon sea salt
• ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

Sauce Ingredients:

• 5 tablespoons honey
• 3.5 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
• ½ teaspoon sesame seeds
• ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
• ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch + 1 teaspoon water mix together separately from the rest of ingredients in a small bowl
• ¼ cup water
• chopped scallions for garnish

Note: if you like a saucier wing, double sauce the recipe!

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Grease a baking sheet with vegetable oil.
2. Remove florets from the cauliflower with a knife. Chop the cauliflower into smaller pieces to the size of the wings.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, milk, salt, ground black pepper and garlic powder in a bowl to make the batter. If the batter is too thick, thin it out with more milk. Pour breadcrumbs into a bowl and place it next to the batter bowl.
4. Toss the cauliflower in the batter mixture, using a spatula or spoon to coat them all. Transfer the cauliflower to the breadcrumbs to coat completely, then place onto the baking sheet. Repeat until all of the wings are coated.
5. Bake for 22 minutes. While baking, add all sauce ingredients to a medium sized bowl and whisk until uniform consistency.
6. Remove from oven. Toss the wings in the sauce then using tongs or a spoon, remove and place back on the baking sheet. Bake for another 5 minutes.
7. Remove from oven, top with scallions and serve immediately. Enjoy!

Playdoh Garden

Students will design a playdoh garden and create their favorite produce using the following recipe:

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• ¾ cup of salt
• 4 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 2 cups lukewarm water
• 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil (coconut oil works too)
• Food coloring

Instructions:

Stir together the flour, salt and cream of tartar in a large pot. Next add the water and oil. If you’re only making one color, add in the color now as well. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly. Continue stirring until the dough has thickened and begins to form into a ball. Remove from heat and then place inside a gallon sized bag or onto wax paper. Allow to cool slightly and then knead until smooth. If you’re adding colors after, divide the dough into balls (for how many colors you want) and then add the dough into the quart sized bags. Start with about 5 drops of color (my favorite brands are listed above) and add more to brighten it. Knead the dough, while inside the bag so it doesn’t stain your hands. Once it’s all mixed together you’re ready to play.

Seed Dissection

Choosing your seeds
At Phipps, we use giant lima beans for this activity. Bean seeds are by far the easiest seeds to explore as they have large, clear parts. They are also easy to find; they are abundant in grocery stores and well represented in common flower and vegetable seed packets.

Soaking your seeds
Before you can dissect your seeds, they will need to soak in water overnight. A dried seed is pretty hard in order to protect the baby plant inside and will only become pliable after you have soaked it, just as it would underground as it gets ready to sprout.

Let's take it apart!
Your seed contains three main parts: the seed coat, the cotyledon and the embryo.

1. To begin, gently use your thumb and forefinger to rub the seed coat loose from the outside of the seed. It will look translucent in your hand. Describe the feel and texture of the seed coat. Use your magnifying glass to look for the micropyle. The tough and sometimes colorful covering of the seed is essential to its survival. The seed coat protects the embryo plant and its food supply from invasive fungus, rot and insects. The seed coat, however, must be weak in one spot. It must have some small opening so that water can reach the tiny root and initiate growth. In a bean seed, this is called a micropyle. It is the “escape hatch” for the root, the first part of the baby plant to grow. It is barely visible, and is located on one side of the scar where the seed was attached.
2. Next, pick up the inside of the seed and pull it gently apart along the seam. These are the cotyledons, or the food source of the plant. On one side of the cotyledon, you will see a smaller piece attached. The cotyledons provide a food source for the embryo as the seed is ready to sprout. Plants need sunlight in order to make their own source of energy, but that is not easily done underground. Additionally, a plant needs roots to pull nutrients and water from the soil to provide the rest of the photosynthesis equation. This is also both up and down. Another term for cotyledon is “seed leaf”.
3. Gently pull this small piece off of the cotyledon. This is the embryo. Use your magnifying glass to look at it in your hand. Note the shape and size of it compared to the rest of the seed. The embryo is comprised of two parts, a radicle (root) and a plumule (shoot). The radical end is tapered and smooth and the plumule end is forked like a miniature leaf. This is the baby plant. It is in a state of arrested development when dried; only when the seed absorbs water does the embryo start to grow. The radical will grow deeper into the ground and the plumule will break out of the ground to grow leaves and stem.

Germination occurs as the seed leaves absorb water from the ground through the seed coat and micropyle. In addition, the seed must be in the proper environmental conditions; that is, exposed to oxygen, favorable temperatures, and for some correct light. The radicle is the first part of the seedling to emerge from the seed. The cotyledons encase the embryo and are usually different in shape from the leaves that the mature plant will produce.

If you enjoyed dissecting a bean seed, take your left-over soaked seeds and lay on a wet paper towel inside of a plastic bag. Place them in a sunny window and enjoy watching the plant stretch its roots and stems. After a week, take it out of the bag and observe the plant parts with your magnifying lens. It’s the perfect way to see both the top and bottom of a plant at the same time!

Download the Seed Diagram

Enjoyed today's story? Check out some of the books below for similar tales. 

• Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert
• Rainbow Stew by Cathryn Falwell
• Rah, Rah, Radishes by April Sayre

These books can be found at your local library. Visit the link below to learn more about how to check them out. 

Visit Library Website