Field Trip to Participation Park

We at the BUGS program went to Participation Park. It is an urban garden near Johnston Square where some of the food is grown by people in our community. If you would like to help, you are welcome to. Here is more information:

http://www.downtownfarmcoop.blogspot.com/

(Written by Asia Carmichael). 

I was at Participation Park last Monday. While I was there I watered the plants. It was a very hot summer day. We hooked the hose up to a fire hydrant and then started to water the plants. 

Participation Park is a garden where you and your family can work hard and grow your own vegetables. (Written by Breonna Vincent). 

A Day of Harvesting in the Summer Garden

On this day we picked tomatoes, squash, beans, celery and cucumbers. We had fun picking all of the colorful vegetables from the garden. I had squash and Ranoah had big tomatoes. (Written by Kerron Webb).

Breonna and I were outside picking tomatoes and summer squash on a super hot day. We could tell when a tomato was ready to pick if it was dark red and a little bit squishy. We also had to tell if the squash was ready to be picked. It was big and yellow and green. (Written by Andrea Carmichael). 

I was at the BUGS after-school program, holding a bowl of big cucumbers. We have lots of fun at the BUGS program. I've been in BUGS for four years and that's a long time. 

The cucumbers are very good because they are freshly grown from the garden. We harvest the cucumbers when they are ripe. This is when they are really big. (Written by Miyah Montgomery). 

Asia and I were outside on a sunny hot day holding celery and enjoying ourselves. We grew and picked the celery from our garden at BUGS. The celery is green and looks like flowers. That day we worked hard in our garden. (Written by Brittane Vincent). 

The celery was crunchy and very good. It is growing very well because it has been taken care of by all the BUGS students. Now this celery is ready to be eaten. (Written by Asia Carmichael). 

African Drumming on a Saturday...

On August 8th, a small group of BUGS Students went to the Creative Alliance in the Patterson Park area to participate in the African Drumming Workshop. The class was taught by Baba Changa.

The students that attended this workshop were taught the Kuukuu rhythm. It's a rhythm that is played as a celebration for the return of the harvest. The rhythm is played on 3 drums: the Kikinii, the Sounba, and the Djembe. The Kikinii keeps the timing. The Sounba is the driving force. The djembe plays the rhythm. The students had an opportunity to play on each of the drums. They were taught the 3 sounds that the Djembe makes - tone, slap, and bass. There is a particular way for the hand to be held in order to get those sounds. The Sounba was being hit by a drum stick. There is an action called a press which is the pressing of the drumstick to the drum after striking it. By the end of the 2 hour drumming lesson, the kids were able to know the origins of the drums, what they were made of, and the importance of drumming in the African tradition. They learned new words and were able to be transported out of their usual surroundings to experience the beauty and magnificence of African drumming.

Ronoah plays the Kuukuu rhythm on the Djembe. She played this rhythm so much her hands were getting a little sore but she persevered.

Jeremiah switched to the Kikinii and had to keep the timing for the other drummers. The timing was very basic. There wasn't any change in the actual beat but the spacing between each hit of the Kikinii had to remain the same. Some of the kids made a few mistakes in the beginning but when they got the hang of it, they were unstoppable.

Quante, on the Sounba, had to keep the driving rhythm for the rest of drums. When all of the drums were playing together, they were called the Djembe Orchestra. Having all of the kids play together was a really wonderful thing for them. They learned how to work in a group and what a group working together can accomplish.

Pictures from the Garden

 Some newly planted fall crops:

Three sisters (a Native American companion planting technique that includes corn, beans and squash):

Eggplant:

Tomatoes:

Cucumbers:

Corn:

Basil:

Patty pan squash:

Harvested cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes:

Big beautiful squash plants:

Compost piles:

Weeding the carrots:

Harvested celery:

(Photographs taken by the Boys Group, Session Two. Selected by Jerrel Mack, Antoine Thompson, Daquan Richardson.)

Fishing on the Chesapeake!!!!

Some of the BUGS students had the unique opportunity to go fishing on Thursday, 7/30. We arrived at the Frederick Douglass/Isaac Meyers Maritime Park in Fells Point to be on our way.

With our lunches and water bottles in tow, we boarded the boat of Captain Ken and his crew, Sellfish Charters. The kids were able to get themselves acclimated to the boat very quickly. Luckily, for them, they have been on many boat trips in the Inner Harbor and tend to be old fogies at sailing.

It was going to take an hour and a half to get to our destination, Swan Point. As we sailed to the destination, April, one of the crew members, pointed out to the kids the different kinds of ships and historical places along the route. They saw a hospital ship for emergencies out at sea, the roll out ships that transport cars and other bulky vehicles across the waterways, and the fire ship. Just before we passed under the Key Bridge, there was a red, white, and blue buoy. This was an indicator to let people know where Francis Scott Key's boat sank. As we passed under the Key Bridge, one of the students pointed out these two big apparatuses that had black bumpers which sat on either side of the one of two main legs of the bridge. April stated that they were used for ships that may be heading to the main legs and would divert them from hitting the legs. Seeing the perplexed look on the student's face, I stated, "They're bumpers for the bridge! Who knew bridges needed bumpers, too!"

Continuing onward the kids got to meet Drew. Drew is the son of Captain Ken. Drew was cutting a fish, preparing it as bait for the Rockfish we had to catch. There are so many amazing aspects to Drew. Drew is 9 yrs old. The same age as many of our students. He knew how to gut a fish, cut it up for bait, and, most amazingly, drive a 25 foot boat. Not bad for a 9 yr old!!

We were part of a program to help develop interest in fishing. We had to tag Rockfish. If you were able to catch a Rockfish and tag it, you would win a prize and then have your name entered into a lottery for a large cash prize. Sounds easy enough, right? Wrong!! The Rockfish had to be 18 inches or bigger. We sat bobbing on the water, initially, getting all of the bait eaten off of the hook but then we all got the hang of it. The fish starting biting!! But they were all two small. Jerwon was able to come the closest with a 16 inch Rockfish. Many of the kids caught small Rockfish. All of the students were excited when they were able to catch something and bring it in. Once the fish were caught and didn't meet the legal size, it was tossed back into the Chesapeake Bay along with any other fish we caught.

In between catching Rockfish, we caught Blue Fish. This fish had teeth that could bite through a finger. When the first one was caught, you could hear, "Don't touch it!" Captain Ken explained why and then showed all of us the teeth.
He tossed it into the cooler. The Blue Fish was the only fish we kept. It was later cut up into filets and given to the kids. Along with Blue Fish, we caught Toad fish that you could actually hear croak.
The one thing that gave us a real tug of war was the Cownose ray. Three of the kids caught these rays. Jeremiah was the first to get a ray. Later on, William caught two that were actually mating. Lastly, Quante was able to catch one. His came the closest to the boat.
This ray gave Quante a real workout. The ray would swim away then Quante would reel him back in. Quante did this a few times until he was able to get the ray close to the boat. All the kids and I wanted Captain Ken to get the ray in the boat but that didn't happen. Safety first!!! After the final tug of war with the ray, Quante stated, "That ray gave my arms a real workout!" The other fishers teased him about all of the sweat he had dripping from his forehead from his duel with the Cownose ray. We then headed back to the dock.

As we headed back, the kids talked and reminisced about the good time they had while a couple of other students went off to sleep on the long ride back to the dock.

We arrived back at the dock!! Happy to have had a great time together!!

Puppet Show

This past Wednesday we had our first Puppet Show at the local library.

Mr. Algernon created the script and directed. In art class we created

everything from the set to the puppets. We had a really good time and

were glad to see family and friends in the audience for the performance.

Were planning on making this a full out play for the fall.

(Report by Ms.Rachel)

P.S- The video will shift back vertically after a minute.

The BUGS Grub: cooking experiment experiences

These are fried green tomatoes as they are cooking. 

These are also our fried green tomoatoes. 

She is taking the green tomato and dipping it in the cornmeal. 

Before she dipped it in the cornmeal, she had to dip it in the egg batter. 

These are our beautiful green tomatoes that we harvested from our garden. 

This is zucchini and summer squash mixed for a sauce for our fried green tomatoes. 

In this picture, we are cutting squash, tomatoes, peppers, and garlic for our sauce. 

On a different day, we made peach salsa! 

Pepper, garlic, tomato, and peaches. 

We are frying peaches for a sauce for zucchini bread. 

These are peaches from the farmers market. These peaches are the sweetest peaches ever. 

This is our zucchini bread that we made last week. When it was done, we tasted it and it was good. 

The zucchini bread going into the oven. 

The is the batter of the zucchini bread which has all the ingredients. The ingredients we used included: zucchini (from the garden), flour, eggs, baking powder, and cinnamon.

This is our bruschetta. It tasted like toe-may-taaas. 

We put the tomatoes, peppers, garlic mixture on the bread. 

This is our bruschetta mix before we put it on our bread. 

(Report by Kerron Webb, De'Asia Edwards, Taleyah Little)