The idea of gardening came strolling about on a rainy cold day when N found a worm struggling to reach home. N had this theory that the worm was trying to reach his home safely but due to the rain it was not possible so N decided to pick the worm up and nicely place in on the soil under the tree. I asked N why did he put the worm there, and he said “because its his home”.
The following day D came running to me to show what he has in his hand and it happened to be a lady bug. When I had a look at it, I assumed that it was dirt but D was adamant that it was a lady bug and when I had a closer look then it was a lady bug. But what D wanted to know was where his family was. Over the next few days children found snails stuck to the wall, went on worm hunting under the trees, found a lady bug and also had a theory about how spiders come out at night when we are not there.
From all these observations and questions, we decided to start our own little garden to give the children the idea of what these busy little worms and snails do and how they contribute to nature and also to give the children an idea of what other living things are out there in the world. Children knew that worms live in the soil but what do they do in the soil?
Worth & Grollman (2003) suggest that children are aware that human beings and animals need food, water, air and safe place to survive yet their knowledge about plants are that they are there to look nice or to give us flowers and R suggested that is there for us to look at.
For me as an educator I believe that children should be able to create that relationship with nature where they have knowledge about all the living things in it and also be able to respect what mother earth has to offer. Through gardening children were able to see the process, how long it takes for the plants to grow and how much time and effort it needs in order to grow.At the moment we are all waiting to see what vegetation will be sprouting out first and the children at the centre are very eagerly waiting to see some results.
This morning we went to vist our garden and guess what we found some green leaf and a very very little stem trying to come out of the soil. The children were very excited and eager to touch but we had to be very careful so that we would not harm the plant in any way.
ReplyDeleteHi Supriya,
ReplyDeleteGreat learning about snail and worms. I like that you respected the nature so that children can also learn what living things are around and how they are natured.
Hello Supriya, I enjoyed reading your blog. I can see through your gardening adventure, you have given the children to learn a lot about nature and living things.
ReplyDeleteYour post was well related to science and outdoor. I can see you tried to use this for social studies but you had to explain it. What you do think about this event? How would you extend children's interests?
ReplyDelete