Last week, we celebrated National Gardening Week by planting sunflowers. Hopefully they arrived home in one piece and are now sitting on a sunny windowsill waiting to grow. National Gardening Week celebrates the feel-good power of plants and being amongst nature. I think we’ve all grown to love and appreciate whatever outdoor space we are lucky enough to have access to over this past year and appreciate how positively it impacts our personal wellbeing. It’s increasingly important to get our daily dose of vitamin “G”, Green!
Whilst out and about last week I talked to the children about nettles and brambles, why we avoid them, but also why they are important. Try asking them why Mrs Wilson keeps a nettle patch in her garden to see who was listening!
I was lucky enough to be given a giant sunflower head, which I brought in for the children to see, touch and plant from. There were lots of guesses as to what this strange dried up object was when I brought it out, most commonly a huge mushroom, a toadstool or a beehive. Kindy and Nursery children pretended to be tiny seeds, by crouching down on the ground wiggling and growing slowly then bursting into beautiful sunflowers, with beaming smiles!
Reception planted their sunflower seeds, talking about what they needed and what would happen next. They then ran around in the afternoon sunshine until they were tired, then flopped into a pile of dead leaves for a rest.
Year 2 children were nearly swept away by the heavy rain we had last Wednesday afternoon. They planted up their sunflower seeds quickly, then headed under the trees for shelter, where they climbed and hung and swung! On Friday afternoon, Year 1 was able to enjoy the sunshine, planting their sunflowers and discussing the ‘life cycle of a seed’. We also talked about the various types of wildlife who love to eat the sunflower seeds once the flower has died and dried out; birds, mice and that most unusual species… the human being!
Reception performed a ‘Garden Rescue’ style makeover in the butterfly garden last week. It had become overgrown and looked very unloved after the past year. So we planted some new plants to attract the butterflies; beautiful scabious, hebe and phlox. The children were very enthusiastic and got stuck into the digging, planting and watering of the new plants. The garden is now ready and open for butterflies…whenever the warm sunshine decides to make an appearance!
Thank you to Mrs Barraud for her help in sourcing the new plants. Don’t forget to water your sunflowers, I’ll be asking for photos and measurements later this term!
Mrs Wilson
