Through gardening, children are engaging all of their senses. They touch, smell, see, hear and taste throughout the process. The skills that children develop through an engaging experience will help them with motor activities, build a sense of belonging, nurturing and well-being.
We had many curious minds as the snow disappeared, “When are the leaves going to come back on the tree?” Hailey asked. “How do the leaves grow?” Brooke also wondered. Over a few days the preschoolers continued the conversation about how things grow, planting and what grows from the ground.
Naturally, we began implementing and creating provocations around the topic, the interest kept growing and conversations between the children continued.
As educators it’s important for us to build on the children's interests through activities and exploration, so I thought what better way than to allow the children the opportunity to explore planting their own flowers.
“What are we doing today Bailey?” Kimmie asked in excitement as she observed me placing out the soil and terracotta pots. “Are we going to plant?” Graeme asked with excitement. “Would you like to?” I asked, and everyone shared their excitement.
With groups of 8 we placed out the soil with shovels, seeds, terracotta pots and a watering can. Eight by eight the children waited patiently for their turn, with minimal help from their educators they scooped their soil, picked what flower they wanted, a sunflower or a pink zinnia flower. I observed as many placed their seeds in the soil in their own way, but they all were very careful with it as they put the seeds in their pot. They continued to use their fine motor skills and scooped the soil until it reached the rim of the pot. Once they were all done they each brought their potted plant to the windowsill and gave it a good watering.
“What's next Bailey?” Moyosola asked. "We have to water it and put it in the sunlight." Graeme added “Yeah!” “And watch it grow,” Cillian expressed in excitement. “But how long until it grows, tomorrow?” Brooke wondered.
The children began sharing how long they each thought it will take for their plants to grow, we wrote their guesses on a paper and placed it near our newly planted flowers for the children to see all of their hard work and educated guesses.
It was a great experience to see each child’s creativity shine through especially when we painted their terracotta pots. The concentration, fine motor skills and creativity were all hard at work- some were mixing colours, painting different patterns or objects on their art piece to really capture all of their hard work come together.
Over the course of the next month, we will take progress pictures to capture their ongoing learning through this process of their individual learning that takes place. Keep an eye out on Digibot to see the progress, as we have a few more special details to add before they head home at the end of May. We hope to continue the growing interest and plant some more things outside once it gets nice enough to do so.
