While we were all out it the garden, the Little Seedlings kept trying to pick the pretty flowers. We made it into an activity by making some amazing flower prints on fabric and paper. First we got some cotton napkins, placed the flowers on one side and folded the napkin in half to cover the flowers. We all had fun bashing the napkin with a rolling pin.
Material Flower Printing
Garden Flowers
Flower Paper Printing
After a few minutes, we opened up the napkin and carefully peeled off the squidgy flowers. The patterns made by the flowers were very pretty and printed on both sides of the napkin like a butterfly.
Sophie
Martha
The children enjoyed this activity and extended it by mixing paints to make different colours, shades, prints.
Tracie has a lot of nooks and crannies where she grows in her garden and she has decided to use the back end of the garden (where she gets the most sun!) for her growing challenge.
We are three generations of gardeners starting a gardening challenge to see the difference in the ways we garden and grow!
Phyllis (Grandma)
Tracie (Mum)
Gemma (Daughter)
We will all have the same seeds and grow them in our own ways. We will give regular updates and are looking forward to sharing the results. Follow the Garden Challenge with our hashtag GardenChallenge2021!
This year the theme in our ever-changing garden will be a rainbow explosion of colours to represent our hard-working Key Workers. So far we have looked through gardening magazines to find various plants we could use. All the children have chosen their favourite colours and plants, which we will incorporate within the two gardens.
Our BIG project will be to extend our pond area for all our wildlife. Our main pond is in a raised bed but the wildlife need more space so we’re looking to extend it across the bed. The children have asked for a water feature so this might make an appearance.
Over the last couple of years we have had so much success with our raised beds, however we need to make these changes. We are always finding new and exciting ways to garden. We’ll also be putting up the new greenhouse and VegTrugs.
We will keep you posted on the projects, so keep returning to our website to find out how its all gone throughout the seasons.
Following our lovely activity with leaf printing we decided it would be good to use the baby pumpkins, that Georgia kindly brought in, to make pictures.
Tracie set the activity up and the children loved it so much they wanted to print on other materials. When we had finished, Leo asked if we could make other pumpkin pictures. Emma helped the children make a display for our wall.
In August the Wildlife Rangers asked if they could keep some caterpillars they had found. We talked about what they would need for a habitat and that we had to look after them and once they had turned into butterflies we had to let them free.
Caterpillar
Cocoon
The first thing the Wildlife Rangers did was look on the internet to how to make the best habitat for the critters, to keep them safe and well. Tracie found a fish tank in the shed which the Rangers cleaned to make into a little habitat.
The Rangers put some gravel, soil and plants into the tank to provide the caterpillars with food. They used an old lid from a coffee jar and filled with water for them to drink.
The caterpillars seemed happy munching away for a few days. The Rangers kept checking the tank every day, they showed the younger Wanderers and Seedlings the tank and told them all about the facts they had found out about the mini beasts.
One day, when the Wildlife Rangers checked on the caterpillars they said they had all gone and asked me if I had let them go? I asked the children to go back and take a good look in the tank. They were delighted to find they had changed into chrysalises. The children kept an eye on the chrysalises every day. In September, the Rangers found one had hatched into a White Butterfly. They were all delighted. Within the week all the butterflies had hatched and were flying around. We decided it was time to set them free.
Googly Eyes
Stuck on Tracie’s Fingers
Everyone watched as Tracie opened the lid. What happened next we did not imagine, they flew out onto Tracie then flew off on their travels!
Today Ivor, Martha and Tracie went on a vegetable hunt to see what they could make for tea. Ivor and Martha both found some onions to pull out and then Ivor found some of the rainbow carrots were ready to munch on.
Martha’s Onion
Onions
Big Shoots!
Rainbow Carrots
They didn’t quite make the kitchen because we washed them with the outdoor tap and ate them all up! Martha said they were very crunchy and juicy. Ivor had too much in his mouth to answer.
As it was lovely and warm, we all spent the day outside. We looked around the garden and took photos of our favourite flowers of the week.
We noticed that there were hundreds of caterpillars on our leaves. Unfortunately they had eaten all of our cabbages and nasturtiums. Tracie was not happy.
Cornflower
Poppy
Camellia
Martha and the Caterpillar
Sunflower
Agapanthus
The Gang at the Park
Martha was brave and handled the caterpillars but Ivor screamed when he went to touch one! hahah Poppy and Chloe made a caterpillar home so they could study them and see what happens while they are in there! Watch this space…
Tracie's Treasures 