OUR LEARNING EXPERIENCES

People in our neighborhoods do not like to practice the things that they learn when they were kids. (Mariano) In our schools, in Abraham House and everywhere there is always somedody teaching us the right thing.(Jhenny) For example, in the school we learn about water and energy conservation, but not everybody follows those advises. (Oscar)

We are lucky because we are part of many initiatives to improve our environment. We attend workshops like the ones held on the Ney York Botanical Garden. Also, on Greenthumb Grow Together city gardeners from everywhere get together to learn from each other, organize competitions among gardens and Harvest Festivals. We also have family events in the community garden that include story telling, birthdays and anniversary celebrations, movie nights, barbecues and table games. (Juana and Oscar)

We hope to accomplish many things with our garden, especially to make our neighborhood look nicer.(Orlando) We hope to make our garden one of the resources that can bring people together.(Gaby) We are also trying to tell people the importance of living in a clean environment.(Jhenny)

From the Garden Mosaics program, we have learned that science can be fun if you have the proper way to learn it. Through our work we have learned how to value our environment, the plants and the animals, but the most important ting is how to take care of them. We are not the same kids taht started the program. Now we are more aware of environmental and ecological issues. (Juana and Orlando)

We are able to recognize some weeds, name some birds and of course we don't throw rocks at them!!(Lilly, Ana and Angelica)

The people in our community are always trying to teach us something new. Now we are more alert to certain signs in the community. (Gaby and Genaro)

We dont "chase" chickens, but we play with them. (Genaro)

We don't just pull out the weeds, but we try to relocate them. (Juana and Ana)

We are also more careful when we are walking on the streets and where we dispose of our garbage. When we were cleaning our Community Garden, as part of the Action Project, we learned how to value the tidiness.(Orlando and Gaby)


This blog has shown us a culture and an environment that we did not know. Week by week we discovered something new. We got to know each other and we discovered a new culture.




We have learned that they have a different alphabet with many letters. (Pablo)

They also have inmigrants the same as us. Maybe inmigration comes from different countries, but still that is a topic that we share. (Gabriela)

Siberian kids know about their history and are very proud of it. (Orlando)

Their city has old houses made of wood, but are getting replaced by new ones. (Genaro) People over there want to preserve them because they are part of their past, memories and art work. (Orlando)

Although they have a short period of gardening, they still have beautiful gardens and are not afraid of the problems created by the weather. We thought that they would have unknown vegetables and fruits. They might, but still we share a considerable common variety of them. (Juana, Lilly and Ana)

At the end of this blog we realized that we share more common things than differences. (Orlando) Even though we are from two different countries and have different custums we are united by our desire of having a better world where to live.(Oscar) We have realized that we are not alone and we are capable of changing our environment if we come together. ENVIRONMENT ROCKS!!


The kids of Abraham House

My Neighborhood: the Bronx

Our neighborhood is full of surprises that engage us to contribute some part of ourselves. We enjoy attending AbrahamHouse we feel at home and everyone there is really nice. Abraham House helps us with our homework and how to improve our educational skills. It also offers program that no other place in the SouthBronx may offer. They have arts programs that include art dance and music. They also offer yoga, media class, gardening and Garden Mosaic activities. We are fortunate to attend this after scool program because we are able to see that there are many fun things to do in the neighborhood.

With AbrahamHouse the children who attend the after school program and the summer program have the opportunity to attend Randall's Island, which is a place where we practice sports. Abraham House also offers speech teraphy for children who are having difficulty learning how to talk and they have counseling for the children and their families. Beside all of this fun activities they offer religious services on the weekends and many other related issues. Abraham House is located on 340 Willis Ave. between 141st St. and 142nd St. in the Bronx.

My neighborhood does not have many fun places to go but it does have places to go and eat if you are ever in the mood to try something new (because our cultural diversity). Everyone gets along like a family and they all know each other. The neighborhood has parks that are always full of childrens and their parents. We love our community garden because we can plant our vegetables and have fun with our friends. We do not only go to the garden to plant and take care of the plants but also to share our happiness with the plants as we play for a little while. We also learn a great amount of nature and science through workshops held there.

In the neighborhood exploration we learned so much about where we live. We all actually saw what our neighborhood was really like. We didn't like to see ugly things, but all the things that we , the neighbors , can do better if we do the right things. For example if we stop throwing garbage on the ground and start to throwing it in the garbage can then we can make it look nicer. We need to make our neighborhood a better place for all of us to live in it. We are glad that we did the neighborhood exploration.

Tomsk environmental activities

Hello, our friends!
We would like to tell you about ecological activities in Tomsk.
The dwellers take part in ecological life of our city. For example, they make “Green zones”, places for rest; they make wooden benches, lay out flower gardens.
There are a lot of “competitions”: “The best flower bed”, “The best playground”, “The best porch”, “Tomskiy dvorik (yard)” and others.
This competitions became the pleasant tradition of Tomsk.
Children, pensioners and other activists take part in this activities.
All of this competitions are supported by administration of our town.
July, Neonila, Anastasia L., Galina.

Green spaces in Tomsk(Types of gardens)

Hello, friends!
We would like to tell you about diffrent kinds of green spaces and gardens in Tomsk.There are 4 types of gardens:
First type includes city-owned gardens.
Lagerny garden(foto left) is situated on the bank of the river Tom. It looks like forest with walking pathes. In the middle of this park the Monument to Unknown Soldier is situated.


City-garden includes attractions for children, walking place, alleys with wonderful trees. In this park there are many cafes.

Second type includes orangerees
Botanical garden.(fotos below text)It is one of the most famous in Russia. This garden is very beautiful. Unfortunately, it’s close now, you can get there only with excursion.


Third type includes green streets.
Tomsk had a birthday two years ago, because of this date Duma (parliament) decided to plant a lot of trees along many streets.

Fourth type includes private gardens. (fotos below text)
This is the most spread type of gardens in Russia. Private garden is small part of the ground, where people usually grow trees, fruits and vegetables.

Anastasia and Galina

Green Spaces in the Bronx

In the Bronx we have Commnunity Gardens, school gardens and home gardens. We also have Public Parks like St. Mary's Park, and the Botanical Garden, not to mention our huge Bronx Zoo.

People enjoy them, because they not only help to clean our environment in a polluted city, but provide a healthy and safe place for activities for our families. NYC is an overcrowded city and the size of the apartments and the number of the buildings reflect it. That is why people, but especially young people, need green spaces to run, play, yell and screram without bothering anyone.

We can play our favorite sport (usually soccer, beisball or football) and do any physical activities. People can ejoy nature, learn from it, and if you are lucky you get to plant different kind of plants some of them from your own country.

In addition, you can see animals that you have never seen before. Our Community Garden acquired some hens. We knew about them because we eat them at home or because we saw pictures of them. Since we got them we have been running after the slippery hens and had a lot of fun. Some kids were also afraid of worms, but now it is something we are used to.

The best thing is that green spaces provide our community with a place where you can spend time with your friends and family in a safe environment.

Garden Mosaics activities in the Bronx

Orlando Velez: In the garden we plant and grow vegetables. We did many projects like Bird Watch, Weed Watch, Gardener Story, Neighborhood Exploration, Gardening Enhancement and Garden Inventory.

The project I liked the most was Weed Watch, but it was very challenging. It was very challenging because we had to estimate a lot, and it was a close estimate. It was hard because wehad to keep quiet and sometimes I am not that patient.

I also liked Neighborhood Exploration. We saw a garden near to a Senior Citizen House and I thought that we can help them in taking a better care of it.

Gabriela Cisnero: What I have been doing in the Garden Mosaics is planting the plants, pulling out the weeds, harvesting and also cleaning the garbage that we found on the garden as part of the Action Project program.

I went to Saint Mary’s Park with Milagros and the students that go to the garden and we did Bird Watch. The part I liked the best was watering the plants, and

taking care of our community garden among other things, because that is how I know that I have a direct influence in my community.

Jhenny's Memories: I would like to tell you some things about Garden Mosaics. My friends and I have been learning about Weed Watch. We learned that many plants are weeds. We also learned that a strawberry is a weed .When we found that out we were all surprised.
We also did Bird Watch and learned about many birds that live in ourneighborhood. The birds we saw were House Sparrows, MourningDoves, American Robbins, and many other birds. I also worked last year in a couple of wonderful progr ams called Gardener Story and Garden Inventory.
This year I am working in the Neighborhood Exploration and Action Project. We worked a lot this past summer in our garden. I know you will have fun!

Mariano Velez: In the garden I was having fun especially when the water fight started!Everyone was getting wet. But the best part s were planting and harvesting. Sometimes we got to play but then we had to keep working and that was what was fun about the garden.
So why don't you join us! If you can't, try next time, because you canalways learn new things. I learned a lot from Weed Watch, Bird Watch and Gardener Story! From our last Neighborhood Exploration I learnedthat our community needs to work on some issues.

Juana & Ana: We were working very hard in the last three years and now we can say that our Community Garden is our favorite place to be. Our favorite activity was the Gardener Story. We had a lot of fun with Paco’s stories. He is an old Puerto Rican gardener who taught us many of his tips on how to plant. On Weed Watch, we worked hard too. Collecting and classifying data can be a learning experience. Also we were able to meet important people who helped us to understand better about weeds, not only the problems that they create, but their benefits too.

Greetings

Hello. My name is Oscar Estrada. I am 10 years old and I am in 5^th grade. My birthday is on March 12^th. I got a scholarship to attend to St. Jerome and I like coming to Abraham House because I learn many things here. We have Mass on Saturdays and Sundays where I have an important mission as an Altar Person. I love to play soccer and I practice as much as I can every time that I have a chance.

Hi. I am Lillian Martinez, but you can call me Lilly. I am in the 5^th grade and I am 9 years old. My birthday will be soon (on November 25^th). I have two big brothers and a little sister. When I grow up I want to be a doctor. My favorite hobby is to play soccer. My brothers and other relatives also play soccer with me. My bestest friends are Jhenny and Noemi, but she is not part of this program because she lives far away and is difficult to come every day.

Hi everybody. My name is Angelica Chavez and I am in the 5^th grade. This is my first year working in the Community Garden and in the Garden Mosaics program. I am a very happy to be part of this program and get to know people abroad. I have an older brother and two little sisters.

From left to right:

Genaro, Angelica, Gabriela and Lilly

Hi. My name is Gabriela Cisnero, I am 15 years old. I attend to Community High School for Social Justice where I am in the 10^th grade. My family is from Dominican Republic and I visit them on vacation. This is also my first year working with the Garden Mosaics program and I am very happy to have been selected because it is a wonderful experience. My hobby is to write poems and when I grow up I want to be a nurse. I look forward to learn more things about you!

I am Genaro Chavez and I am 10 years old. I am in 5^th grade and my favorite subjects are Reading and Spelling. My family is from Mexico and we come here to Abraham House to get help. They also come to get English classes. I come here to get help with my homework and to help during Mass as Altar Person. I hope to hear from you soon.