Island Grown at Home

Tuesday, June 9th, 2020

For the month of June, watch our weekly Island Grown at Home video, then pick up a garden kit from the Family Center full of materials to do the activity yourself!

Supplies are limited, so to reserve your garden kit email [email protected]

Find all our IGAH videos at www.islandgrownschools.org/athome

Bug Scavenger Hunt

How many can you find?

Decide how you want to conduct your bug search. You may choose to catch the bugs and keep them in a container for observation. You might also prefer to just observe the bugs in their environment and then leave them alone. Make sure any bugs you collect aren't held in captivity for too long, and that you return them where you found them!
Review your bug scavenger hunt sheet if you're using it. Think about where these bugs like to hang out. Bees and butterflies can usually be found visiting flowers. Spiders live in webs, and can also be found in soil in garden beds. Worms, slugs, and ants can often be found under big rocks or objects in your yard or garden.
Spend some time looking around outside (and maybe even inside!) for bugs. You might choose to conduct your bug scavenger hunt over the course of several days- bugs can be tricky to find.
You can take photos or draw pictures to document your findings. You might also find bugs that aren't on the scavenger hunt sheet! Use the internet or books to identify bugs you aren't familiar with.

Activities

Planting a Pollinator Garden

Start by having a discussion about pollination.

What is pollen? Each flower has pollen inside it. Try to find examples- you can look inside flowers, or maybe it's blowing in the wind or all over your car!

What is pollination? To put it simply, pollination is what needs to happen for flowers to be able to make fruit and seeds. The pollen from one flower needs to be mixed with the pollen from another flower.

Who are pollinators? Make a list: bees, butterflies, bats, birds, moths, flies, beetles, and wasps all pollinate. The most important pollinators are bees. Pollinators pick up pollen from flowers and bring it to other flowers.

Why is this important? What would happen if we didn't have any fruit or seeds?

Now that we've established how important pollination and pollinators are, how can we make sure to take care of them? If you have a garden, how can you make sure pollinators want to come pollinate all your pea and tomato flowers to turn them into food? One way to attract pollinators is by planting flowers!

Pollinators especially love brightly colored flowers, anything bright and beautiful will help the bees and butterflies find your garden. Visit a garden store to find some plants and seeds to grow in your yard and garden as a gift to our pollinator friends.

Plants that help attract pollinators:

Sunflowers
Zinnias
Pansies
Lavender
Asters
Borage
Dandelions

More Resources

A short video for kids on bees and pollination

A fun and informative video on insects for kids

A list of all insects that can be found in Massachusetts

Don't forget to send us your kids cooking videos! They can be emailed to [email protected] .

Click here to learn more

Find all Plants + Bugs of the Week

Recipe of the Week

Celebrate June with a Harvest of the Month Recipe by Chef Gabrielle Chronister!

Strawberry Chia Jam

2 cups of fresh or frozen strawberries

2 tbl chia seeds

3 tbl honey

1 tbl fresh lemon juice

Heat a medium saucepan over medium heat and add the strawberries, stirring them around in their juices until they begin to soften.

Once the berries have softened a bit, use a potato masher or fork to break them up even more. Let the mixture come to a slow boil, stirring continuously.

Once you see big bubbles break the surface, add the chia seeds and honey, stir to combine and lower the heat to a simmer.

Continue stirring the mixture over low heat for about 5 minutes, and then add the lemon juice. Stir to combine and remove the pan from the heat.

Pour the mixture into a mason jar and let cool for 20 minutes before covering with a tight lid.

The chia seeds need some time to achieve the gelatinous texture, so let the jam cool and then put your jar of jam in the fridge for a few hours and it will achieve the perfect texture.

If you enjoy your jam smoother, add the mixture to your blender and blend before pouring into the jar.

Enjoy your healthy jam over some oatmeal, in a classic PB&J, on toast, served with crackers, or on top of yogurt. The jam will keep in the refrigerator for 10 days and freeze for up to 3 months.