Waikiki School Garden Party- January 18th, 2010

Our next big work day in the garden will be Monday, Jan. 18th, 2010
From 8:30-1:00pm
FREE lunch and nutritional information provided for families by Kaiser Permanente

Tasks will include preparing the AINA IS gardens, nurturing our fruit tree orchards, grading for our new nursery/shade house to be built and general weeding.

Please RSVP to Dolly (dolly_bahn@notes.k12.hi.us or call 971-6900)
no later than Jan. 13th.

Students' heirloom tomatoes are growing fast

Our fourth graders are busy keeping up with the fast growing tomato plants. The cherokee purples are fist-sized and growing and some of the black cherry plants have up to 24 fruit!

Waikiki School starts organic food farm

Waikiki School has started an organic food farm. Why? To inspire and educate our children about careers in agriculture, growing and eating fresh foods, and bringing a sense of pride to our school environment. The farm will work towards sustainability through marketing of fresh produce, collection of seeds and water-saving techniques. Projects proposed for the garden include 'eat what you grow' gardens, for example, a classroom can adopt a 'salsa garden' by growing the necessary ingredients to make salsa (cilantro, onions, tomatoes, peppers). The fourth grade classes are currently growing heirloom tomatoes using organic methods.

Timeline of Food Farm:
July 2009: mulch/manure method to grow living, healthy soil (5th and 6th grade students, community members)

August-October 2009: continue watering 3x per week, vemicast tea application (4-6 grade students)

October 2009: garden designed and first Kalo and tomatoes were planted (4th grade students, community members)
November 2009: 48 tomato plants; 8 heirloom varieties. legumes planted

Waikiki School HECO Home Energy Challenge

The Waikiki School-HECO Home Energy Challenge is ON and you could help our school win big money $$! Your challenge is to conserve energy at home; we will help you with tips and suggestions on how to do that. Waikiki School could win up to $8,000 if we can collectively use less energy at home this year (Oct. 09- March 2010) than last year (Oct. 08-March 09). To qualify you need to have the same HECO account number throughout the challenge period; one entry per family. Please register using the Home Energy Challenge form sent home with your child and start saving energy!!

'AINA IS Garden Party Sept 22nd

'AINA IS Gardens:
Thanks to all our families and community helpers for your hard work getting our 'AINA IS gardens ready for the new school year. We now have our kindergarten, 1st, 4th and 5th grade 'AINA gardens ready for planting. We are always looking for more garden volunteers to help with the classroom activities.

'AINA IS Nutrition Lessons:
Grade 2 and 6 nutrition lessons are beginning soon. The lessons are fun and educational for everyone. You can serve as a docent and lead the lessons or as an assistant to help the docent with the lesson, work with the students on their classroom activities, or help prepare the snack that goes with that lesson.


If you are interested in volunteering either as a garden helper or a nutrition docent, please email kelly@kokuahawaiifoundation.org. Kokua provides training for docents.