Roots and Shoots
We call Jake (my husband) Mr. McGreggor around here, not because he loaths rabbits, but because his garden is always full of rows and rows of wonderful things to eat. He works in the commercial world helping farmers get the most out of their crops and growing is truly a passion for him.
We start the day by going on a garden walk with Jake to discover what secrets the garden is hiding. Plants sucking up water from the soil, moving to catch sunlight, fighting off pests. There are good bugs eating bad bugs, and bad bugs trying to eat the plants! Worms mining their way through the soil looking for something to eat, and seeds just germinating and starting their journey into becoming a full grown plant. These are just some of the crazy, busy things going on behind the scenes of a quiet garden.
Now we will move on to learning about plants, pollination and pollinators and seeds through some of these questions. Where do plants come from? How does this huge sunflower come from an itty bitty seed? What do roots do? How do plants eat? And so many more.
Fun activities for thee day include making seed bombs, seed tape, and helping plant transplants into our garden!
Fun Activity: Bug hunt- We find bugs, identify them and talk about what their purpose is in a Garden. Are they predators? Beneficial or harmful? What does their lifecycle look like? How do we help the beneficial bugs thrive in a garden and encourage the pests to go away?
Exploring pollinators through the fascinating life of bees will be sure to have every child captivated.
Harvesting some garden goodness will be our last activity before heading in for lunch, where we will use some of the gardens produce to create lunch salads and learn how to make homemade salad dressing! (don’t worry we will have other food for those picky kids! But I bet they all try it!)
You kids are sure to come home bursting with information to share after this day!!!
Cooking: Making and baking brick oven pizza!