Tag: summer veg

Posted in bug hunt, childminding, frogs, Garden Classroom, Honey Bees, Bees, Great British Bees, rangers, Seedlings, wanderers

Bug Hunting

Posted on by Tracie Dowling

Today the little seedlings decided they wanted to be explorers and look for bugs.

Jacks first area of interest was the barrel pool which has a solar powered floating fountain. he quickly realised if he moved it into the shade it stopped working. he liked slapping the to of the water and splashing himself.

Elsie soon caught up with Jack and wanted to have a go but she couldn’t quite fit, she started pushing Jack out of the way. Jack edged her away, I explained to Elsie if she moved back a little Jack would be able to turn around and move to give her some space to have a turn. It was a bit tricky because by then Ruby had decided to join the children which caused a traffic Jam.

Baby Spiders
Ladybug
Elsie So Gentle
Buzzy Bee

While we were looking for bugs a Ladybird flew onto Jack. He froze and looked down at it. I carefully moved the ladybird off Jack so we could all have a better look. We counted the Ladybirds spots to see how old it was. we counted 8 spots George said “its like a spider with eight legs!’

Next we found a nest of tiny baby spiders, Elsie turned and fled, shes not a fan of spiders! George and Jack where fascinated watching them scuttling about the nest until Jack decided to poked the nest and made all the spiders run in different directions, this made Jack and George feel itchy like they were crawling up their body. Yuk!!

Caught In Magnifying Pot
Looking At Grace
George Wanted To Look
Looking For Frogs

Next on the hunt we found a buzzy bumblebee going from one yellow poppy to another. Tracie explained he was collecting pollen from the poppies. Grace said ‘ to make honeycomb’ Tracie explained that bees make Honey which can be made into honeycomb. (Good activity idea! To extend learning) George said he loves honey and asked if we will have Honey sandwiches for snack time. Nom nom

Elsie decided to go back and look in the barrel again while the others went to the pond. We were so lucky because as we got there (very quietly) a frog was having a swim. Tracie very carefully got her net and caught him so we could have a closer look!

We Found A Frog!

What a busy, fun bug hunt we had today!

Posted in childminding, family, frog Spawn, frogs, Garden Classroom, hydroponics, outdoor play, rangers, Seedlings, The Theatre, wanderers

A Walk Around The Garden

Posted on by Tracie Dowling

Today we walked around the garden to look at all the changes we made last year and to make notes on what we want to plan for this year.

Spring In The Garden

The winding footpath we made last year is ideal for walking and running about avoiding the messy mud. The children love how they can run around and peep through the planting bug hunting, plant spotting and watching everything grow. They love the bug pile and saw some worms and ants.

Cold Frame
Our Seeds Are Now Young Plants
Georgia Planting
Petunia

We have sown all our bedding plants this year to save money, we also used peat free compost to help save our planet. The seeds have now grown into healthy young plants so we potted them on, ( put into bigger pots) and put them into the cold frame to wait for the last frost, we will then put them in our living wall.

This years project is to make the decking area into a nicer living ‘Outdoor Classroom’ We have chosen

Petunia, Lobelia and Fuchsia’s to have trailing, ground cover in the vertical wall garden. We will add the Herbs (growing in our greenhouse) for tasting and smelling into the wall as soon as they have matured.

We have Roses, Honeysuckle, Jasmine and Passiflora for climbing up the trelliss and giving off a floral fragrance. Our aim is to make the ‘Outdoor Classroom stimulate all our five senses. To make the decking more accessible for the babies we are going to add Astro turf so it’s safer for them to crawl and play on.

We were so excited to see our frogs while out and about, they were keeping an eye on their spawn, this will soon turn into tadpoles and frogs. Tracie taught us how to carefully remove some of the water weeds and she added some bunches of watercress to freshen up the pond to make the water less Murky so we can see the pond life without disturbing them.

Clear Water
Small Pond
Apple Tree Pond
Mr Croak
Mrs Croak
Spawn

Our Big Plans For This Year 2023:

We have decided in our living classroom we are going to:

Lay artificial grass to make the decking completely baby friendly.

Make a toy box storage area for outdoor equipment

Pot up the Herbs and make labels.

Make a water feature for relaxing sound and to have water play

In the Greenhouse we are going to grow:

Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Loofa , Chilli and start off our Cabbage, Cauliflower, and Broccoli

Sow winter flowering plants to give out Garden all year color and edibles.

In the front garden:

We want to encourage more wildlife in, so we are thinking about making a new pond, putting in more hedging, and adding some hidden bird feeders.

So we have BIG plans, so keep watching our blogs to see how we go….

Posted in Garden Classroom, Seedlings, wanderers

Avocado Growing

Posted on by Tracie Dowling

Two years ago we decided to grow an avocado stone. The Little Seedlings tried the Avocado fruit. Only one out of five Seedlings liked it!

We had another go last year. This time we placed the stone into water using a special ‘Avoseedo’ tool. We waited for it to grow and after about nine weeks the stone started splitting.

Avocado

About six weeks later, a small sprout appeared at the tip and roots began to form at the bottom. Two months went by… then the roots and shoots began to get stronger. In June, we planted the small tree into a pot with soil.

  • Avocado
  • Avocado stone

We were given another stone by our neighbour and decided to try growing that too. We now have two thriving trees.