Mchicha

 Last week, the kids went out to harvest mchicha (spinach) from the garden. We rinsed it off really well, since it was very sandy and then the kids got to work. Ms. Irene led the entire lesson and it was great to learn from her. She taught us the secrets of cooking mchicha and even taught us how to taste your dish like a Tanzanian while cooking. She is a woman of many talents. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

• mchicha
• 1 onion
• 4 tomatoes
•  1.5 carrots
• 2 tbs oil
• 2 tbs blue band (butter)
• 2 tbs peanut butter with 1/3 cup hot water
• salt to taste (Irene says "salt is unpredictable, so just keep on adding.")

Cooking Method:

• Heat oil with onions until they are brown. Add carrots in, cover and stir for about 5 minutes.
• Next, add the tomatoes and cook down for a while until it makes a sauce. Add salt and taste the "Tazanian way" (see photos).
• Add peanut butter and keep on stirring.
• Finally, add the mchicha. Cover to let it boil and let it cook down for about 5-10 minutes.

The kids did a great job and the mchicha was delicious!  We even ate it with ugali, and the kids dug in with their hands just like the locals. Some kids even lined up for seconds. Yummm!

 

PYP Plant Unit Guest Speaker

 On Tuesday, Grade 3 had the pleasure of hosting Arran's dad, Mr. Daniel, from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture. It was an exciting presentation and the students were captivated by the interesting content, numerous props and audience participation. Mr. Daniel gave a good overview about plants and discussed the plant he works most closely with, the banana.

We learned that the banana actually does not have seeds and farmers need to plant them using cuttings. The difficulty is that banana plants get sick because of nematodes. His organization helps farmers by growing bananas in the lab and giving healthy plants to farmers so that they can have a healthy crop. It was great to learn more about local plants. Grade 3 sends a warm asante sana!

 

Informational Writing: Kids News Websites

 The final writing unit of this year for grade 3 is Informational Reports. Students are researching and
writing reports related to our PYP Plant Unit. Here are some websites for kids that have many examples of non-fiction writing. Kids, take a look through them and see if you can get any tips for your writing. Enjoy!

National Geographic Kids
Scholastic News Online
Science News for Kids
Time for Kids
 

Student Action: Plant Part Presentation

Shortly after arriving to school today after being sick all week, Arran surprised me with this lovely presentation. Nice work Arran!

Plant anatomy from Rorey Risdon

 

Planting in the IST Grade 3 Garden

While I was out sick yesterday with a headache and sore throat, the kids and Irene got to plant our garden with our Resident Gardener Frank. Yes, Frank is our transport manager at IST, but did you know he also runs his own farm? How cool. He picked up some manure and seeds from his farm and brought in so Grade 3 could get their garden started. The kids rolled up their sleeves, and pant legs and left their shoes on the sidewalk. They were ready to plant. I want to send out a special thanks to Irene for taking the photos... now I feel like I can experience it too, with all of you.