Our Kindy Blue classroom has been a hive of inquiry over this term as we have been wondering, 'What's in our garden?'
God has created a world with so much variety and amazing bugs and plants for us to marvel at!
The children have been sharing some discoveries from their home garden with us at school. Mint, roses, geraniums, brown beetles, butterflies, and snails have provided us with great opportunities to observe, smell, feel, discuss, and compare. Mrs van Dam brought in some slugs and snails from her compost heap and we watched them stretch, slither, and slide as they ate lettuce.
Our school garden has provided many black beetles, a jewel beetle, and a special surprise from Mr Becker… a fluffy baby bird! It was found in our carpark and we discovered that it was growing some big feathers. Mr Becker thought that it may have been a wattle bird. The iris bulb that we planted last term suddenly produced a beautiful yellow flower with a sweet perfume.
The wonderful Mr Eikelboom set up our vegetable garden as a ‘wicking’ bed which has a water reservoir underneath the soil. We watched Mr Eikelboom work hard to line the bed with plastic, fill the bottom with lots of rocks and some special pipe for the water, and top it off with soil. Next step… plants!
Mrs van Dam brought in a variety of plants. We looked carefully at their leaves to see if we could recognise them. Some of us identified the lettuce, tomato, and bean plants. We could see some little flowers that we learnt were called alyssum. We discovered that marigolds have a pompom flower and that parsley is a herb that we can eat!
We took turns in digging holes in the dirt, watering the soil, and placing our little plants into the soil before watering again. Sometimes we even had to pinch a few of the roots off to help them to grow. The Pre-Primary class helped us by putting some lupin mulch over the top.
We are learning to caretake God’s earth through our garden and are looking forward to seeing the results of our efforts!
