Spring is here! And with that comes gardening season! The children at St Matthew RisingOaks are lucky enough to have a full area of the playground designated for gardening. This area includes two raised garden beds plus a tire to plant in and several pots. Each year the toddlers work to plant seeds and seedlings into the soil, and then spend the summer caring for them before harvesting the delicious veggies. Some years of course are more fruitful than others, but the process and experience is what excites and inspires the children.
Near the end of May, our cook Brenda brought in a few strawberry plants, some mint and tomato plants. The toddlers spent that morning digging areas in the tire planter for the strawberries, repotting the mint into another pot and finding space in both pots and the garden bed for the cherry and beefsteak tomato plants. Through this process the toddlers learned the steps of gardening. First a hole must be dug, then the plant needs to be gently placed in, and finally the soil can be moved around it to bury the roots. We took our time as we added each item to their spots. We examined the plants, closely looking at and labeling the parts of each-stem, leaves, and roots. Everyone seemed interested in the massive roots that was under each plant! They discovered that the roots are the part that drinks up the water to help the plant grow, and the leaves use the sun for food to help them grow too!
On another day, beans and radishes were added to the second garden bed. This time the children were not digging big holes for plants, but planting using seeds. No roots, leaves and other parts for everyone to touch and see, instead tiny seeds that fit in the children's hands, so tiny they were dropped often. Both yellow and green beans were planted and the toddlers immediately noticed the difference when comparing the seeds, the green beans were brown and the yellow were white. Five lines were dug in the small raised bed, and the toddlers were given a few seeds each in the palm of their hands. They were instructed to carefully place them in the dug out areas. Afterwards, two rows were dug for the radishes. These seeds were super tiny and the toddlers again had to use their fine motor skills to place them into the ground.
Currently, beans, radishes, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, mint and herbs have been added to the garden. Soon we hope to add some flowers into a small garden box. This will provide a new and colourful plant to watch grow and will encourage bees to come and pollinate the other plants.
What's better than planting? Caring for the plants! Not only monitoring their growth, but the most exciting part is watering the soil so everything grows. We have several watering cans of various sizes and every couple of days they are filled and distributed amongst the children. They all love to water the garden and stay there until every bit of soil is soaked!
Not only does caring for plants encourage patience, turn taking, and teamwork, the experience builds on colour recognition, fine motor, early language and math skills, but also allows the toddlers to learn and develop an appreciation for where their food comes from and pride as they play a role in growing it.
