Kids Country Wadsworth
This past year, we have focused a lot more on our garden beds in our outdoor classroom. These garden beds are cared for by the children. This past year the older children helped to prepare the gardens, plant the seeds and pick the foods when they were ready. We planted a variety of different fruits and vegetables, along with flowers. It was fun watching the children run out to the garden beds each day to see what was growing in them.
The conversations the children had with educators and classmates were interesting to listen to. The children learned early on how to realize when foods were ready to be picked and when they needed more time. Each classroom/age group focused on different things within the garden. Our school agers, really focused on the size and color of the foods growing to know when they were ready. Whereas our 2.5 to 3 year old’s focused more on just finding foods attached to the vine. They were not as big into picking the foods. Our 4 year old’s spent time looking at the foods knocked off the plants that were laying around.
Over the course of the summer, families are on our playground. Whether it be for pick up and an after hour event. There were so many times over the summer, that I saw children showing off the garden beds to their families. It is amazing to see the pride and joy in the children’s eyes as they are able to share this with their families. Not only are they able to grow a garden at school with their friends, but then they are able to continue the learning by creating and caring for a garden at home.
We grew a number of pumpkins in our garden, some turned orange while others stayed green. We also grew sunflowers. Once the sunflower died, we brought it out of the garden to use for learning. The children were able to take it apart and see what all was inside.
