Off to the pumpkin field!

The pumpkin is heavy. I need both hands to lift it.

 

 

 

A pumpkin big enough for a chair.

 

 

What is it?

 

 

What happened? Look at this! Are those seeds?

 

 

 

 

The children also met different animals that were on the farm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The barn owl

 

 

Some cows that were on the barn

Bucky, a Scottish Highland Steer

Samson, the donkey

 

And some pygmy goats

 

 

The children enjoyed exploring the different variety of pumpkins and watching the animals. But most of all they had fun playing in the mud (good thing, we got our rain boots on)!

 

 

 

We are all looking forward to our next field trip! Have a safe and happy Halloween!

 

 Patricia & Joanne

 


 

We recently had another enjoyable visit by Ian Lai, who has done a number of gardening workshops with our preschoolers. This round it was our Three-Year Old Class that had the pleasure of having Ian teach them about Mason bees, and Red Wiggler Worms.

 

Female Mason bees gather pollen and nectar, but did you know Mason bees are solitary and make their own nests? No worker bees for this species! Nor do they produce nectar honey or beeswax. Bees hatch from their cocoons in the Spring. Males emerge first, and wait near the nest for the females. They mate and the males then die.

 

The children, armed with magnifying glasses examined the bees and were completely intrigued and asked many questions.... “Where do they sleep?” Do they have a family?” “Do they sting?” Ian had the appropriate answers to all questions asked.

 

The Red Wiggler worms convert organic matter (kitchen waste) into high quality humus, providing our garden with castings, a complete natural fertilizer.

Most children were very cautious initially, but after a short while were happy to hold a worm in the palm of their hand. Some wasted no time (see below) in picking up the worms. Again, many questions were asked. “Do they eat?” “Do they have mouths?” “Do they poo?” The answer to all those questions is yes! “Why are they so bendy?” Bees have no skeleton, but they do have muscles that allows them to wiggle and move around.

 

Hand washing is always important after working in the garden and with the worms. On a good day, the children will have lots of dirt under their fingernails!

 

 

Barbi

We began the morning with a group discussion about Ian visiting our class to do some planting (in our planting boxes on the deck). The response from the children was mixed, with some children enthusiastic to get their hands into the dirt, using “real” garden tools and checking to see if there are “real” worms in the worm bin; whilst others not so sure if they even wanted to see the worm bin!!!

After a short introduction by Ian, we head onto the deck to begin loosening up the soil in the planters box, and looking at the lettuce that had been growing over the summer. We then transplanted the lettuce into another box so it would have room to grow. This the children did carefully, picking a spot in the box and making sure the lettuce is not planted to close together.

After washing our hands, Ian introduced the children to shelling beans, using fine motor skills, the children began the task of sorting beans to colors. Chloe found the beans to be “slippery” as she rubs them in her hand.

 

A Happy Face by Mia, who said “if you turn it upside down it is a sad face.”