Yesterday the grade three class came for their first spring visit to the Ladner Community Garden. Well its technically not quite spring but it was time to plant some early crops.
I had the outdoor classroom all set up so there was enough room for 26 children to sit down and listen to what we would be doing today. We use mostly stumps for sitting, a few benches and folding stools. The children were so excited to be there. They are coming from a newly built school that doesn't have the landscaping finished so this was their first outdoor activity since mid January.
We broke in to groups. My group helped to work on the food bank garden. We needed to dig under the fall rye and harvest the leftover turnips.
This was one big turnip and it took three of them to get it out. They loved the size of the root on this one.
The children were so eager to use the new shovels we purchased at Lee Valley Tools. One child looked at me and said, "I love this, can we come everyday?"
They did a pretty good job turning the fall rye over. We will have to do some more digging at our spring cleanup weekend.
Another group of children looked for bugs and worms in the lasagna garden. They had a worksheet about the anatomy of the worm and the benefits of worms in the garden. Children love to dig so we had trowels handy.
We also spent ten minutes at the beginning of the class just observing the changes in the garden. We talked about what they saw in the garden last fall and how it is now. The children looked all over expecting to see the pumpkins until I reminded them we had made them in to pumpkin soup at school last November. Oh yea, they said. We found the seed heads of last years sunflowers in one of the beds. Look how this one is skeletonized.
We also found sunflower seeds still the beds. We wondered why the birds didn't eat them.
The children cleaned the straw off this bed to uncover the Tulips they planted last fall. We all tried to guess when they would bloom.
All our early vegetables were planted. The children planted early potatoes, peas, broad beans and onion sets. What I didn't think to tell them is we didn't really need the whole box of peas planted. Each child has marked the seed planted with their name beside it. This is going to one full bed of peas!
It was a fun day in the school garden. The children return in early April when we will be planting our salad garden. I can hardly wait!
I had the outdoor classroom all set up so there was enough room for 26 children to sit down and listen to what we would be doing today. We use mostly stumps for sitting, a few benches and folding stools. The children were so excited to be there. They are coming from a newly built school that doesn't have the landscaping finished so this was their first outdoor activity since mid January.
We broke in to groups. My group helped to work on the food bank garden. We needed to dig under the fall rye and harvest the leftover turnips.
This was one big turnip and it took three of them to get it out. They loved the size of the root on this one.
The children were so eager to use the new shovels we purchased at Lee Valley Tools. One child looked at me and said, "I love this, can we come everyday?"
They did a pretty good job turning the fall rye over. We will have to do some more digging at our spring cleanup weekend.
Another group of children looked for bugs and worms in the lasagna garden. They had a worksheet about the anatomy of the worm and the benefits of worms in the garden. Children love to dig so we had trowels handy.
We also spent ten minutes at the beginning of the class just observing the changes in the garden. We talked about what they saw in the garden last fall and how it is now. The children looked all over expecting to see the pumpkins until I reminded them we had made them in to pumpkin soup at school last November. Oh yea, they said. We found the seed heads of last years sunflowers in one of the beds. Look how this one is skeletonized.
We also found sunflower seeds still the beds. We wondered why the birds didn't eat them.
The children cleaned the straw off this bed to uncover the Tulips they planted last fall. We all tried to guess when they would bloom.
All our early vegetables were planted. The children planted early potatoes, peas, broad beans and onion sets. What I didn't think to tell them is we didn't really need the whole box of peas planted. Each child has marked the seed planted with their name beside it. This is going to one full bed of peas!
It was a fun day in the school garden. The children return in early April when we will be planting our salad garden. I can hardly wait!
If the kids can plant early potatoes, peas, broad beans and onion sets in March, I can too!
ReplyDeleteI've never done anything before May long weekend. I've thought about it, but guilt and doing are not the same thing.
Thanks for the reminder.