It was a busy month in the garden. The kids planted lettuces and peas in the raised beds, started planters of herbs along the porch, and helped dig a new little bed for sunflowers. The raised bed is kind of getting taken over by mint right now, but the kids love picking it, so we're leaving it until we need room for tomatoes and squash, which we'll be planting very soon. The beans I wrote about in the last post sprouted very nicely. We moved them into cups and watched the roots grow for about a week before they got too big, and then we moved them out back where they can climb up the fence.
When we do a big curriculum unit like this, we incorporate it into multiple parts of our day. Of course, the kids are involved with the gardening process from planting right through to when they get to pick the produce and eat it. They plant, they water, they help weed the beds. But we also sing songs about plants and gardening, we talk about how plants grow and what they need to do that, we involve the garden in our arts and crafts projects.
You might have seen our sunflower song up on the wall:
(Sung to the tune of "I'm a Little Teapot")
I'm a little sunflower
I'm so small
Soil, sun, and water
Make me tall
When I get all grown up
You will see
I'm as big as I can be!
A couple of days ago, we brought in some leaves of different shapes and sizes used them to make prints (and also just as paintbrushes):
That's all for now! I should have some more pictures of the garden up soon, as well as a post demonstrating the "loose parts" concept I talked in the last post.
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