More on our Sensory Garden

A couple weeks ago we told our readers about our little project we've started. Although it's not 'complete' we wanted to give you a little update on our sensory garden. We've really enjoyed this project and it has been really neat to watch the children take ownership of the garden. They are dilligent weeders, and waterers. They are well aware of the hard work it took to get our garden going, so are very careful to watch where they step in the garden. The sense of pride that the children have with the garden is so wonderful to observe. I'm really glad we have done this project.

It's a lovely area to take a break in, and many children just like to sit in the garden with a little shovel to hunt for worms. As we near the warmer, drier weather, we hope to make more use of the garden for some 'chill out' time.

We planted smaller plants so we could watch them grow, and to make sure that our garden was not overgrown to quickly. We've planted hostas,a variety of grasses and even one called a 'unicorn plant' which has an amazing texture to it. We also have lots of lavender, and other lovely smelling flowers in it, as well as some creeping thyme, that when the children step on it, it expells a lovely smell. 

We still need a little fence of some sort, or edging to be put around the garden (we keep getting balls kicked into the garden) and we picked up some gazing balls that we need to find a way to 'display' them. We will be making some stepping stones to add a little personality to the garden.

This is our 'gathering circle' where we can have some meetings and have some story time. I would really like to paint them to look like little toadstools, but we just haven't got to that stage yet.

This is our newest acquisition: It's our 'Bean Hut'. We've planted some beans that hopefully will climb up the poles to make a little hiding spot.

On the other side of our yard, we've planted some vegetables, and we're excited to see that a few of them have not disappointed us, and are growing like crazy!  

We've got potatoes that need to be covered with another layer of soil!

A little patch of peas. This is in our garden box that we planted lettuce, carrots and radishes. We fear that the crows have gotten to our radishes and lettuce, we'll see!

We've also planted some Kale and Green Onions. We can't wait until the harvest!!!!

Sensory Garden

Over the last few weeks we have been working towards this week! We are putting the plants in the ground! 

This is something I foresee lots of wonderful memories being made in. It's a garden that will be full of so many textures and smells. We're so excited to get going on this project! 

It was quite humorous to watch the children help out with the planting today. The garden itself is quite large, but they all still gathered right next to each other right on the edge and started digging. They did seem to get the concept though, once the plants came out. We did a lot of planning, the children took it quite seriously, looking for 'full sun' and 'partial shade' spots. 

It's turning into quite the project! More photos coming soon!

Dandelion Art (part1)

It seems that overnight someone took our grass and replaced it with some dandelions. Now, the Early Childhood person in me is very happy to see these little yellow guys. But on the other hand, the 'first time with a lawn to care for' person in me cringes. It's really a battle of wills. 

But as Jan White points out in her post about dandelions they are complex flowers and ones that seem to have a bit of a bad rap. So because we have a plethora of dandelions at our disposal, this will be the first of a series of what we find to do with dandelions.

As we were walking through the forest this week we stopped occasionally to pick up a dandelion or two, and discovered that there growing along side them were some purple flowers. Now, as a daughter of a horticulturalist I am supposed to know the name of the purple flower, but I just can't remember it... so we called it a Grape Flower, because it reminds us of a cluster of grapes. 

We picked a large number of these two wild flowers, and I suddenly spotted one child holding a dandelion with a grape flower they had stuck in the stem of the dandelion. I was so curious, so I stopped to take a photo.

As we continued along, I then noticed that each and every child had done the exact same thing with their flowers. 

Just for fun here's a fun little Dandelion Time Lapse video that we found so interesting.

Woodsy Wanderings

Every spare moment after the children head home i've been busy outside, taking advantage of every ounce of the sunny weather to get going on our outdoor classroom. It's been a lot of fun, and a lot of hard work, but oh so rewarding! Point is, there may be days that we're not posting, but the effort will be made, let's hope it gets done!

Here's a photo journey of our latest forest explorations. We decided to follow the stream to see where it led to. It was a great way for some of our 'newer' walkers to hone those skills. It was hard work... even I struggled (mostly because I kept getting trapped by the blackberry bushes). We headed back to the school wet and well satisfied that we had gone on a real adventure!

 

The forest is quickly becoming the number one destination of excitement. Next up, barefoot wading!

Natural Paintbrushes

We collected these pine needles from our backyard, so we could paint with them. The pictures that they made were quite neat, the smell was an extra bonus too!

The dinosaurs got in on the painting action too. 

Plus the plastic trees from our really fun grass table.

Then the paintings evolved into car painting. 

We're pretty excited to share our latest addition to our room. Our grass table has become a favourite miniature playscape. We planted the grass a few weeks ago, and the children looked forward to checking in on the progress each day. It's finally ready to set up little scenes, and reenact some fantastic stories!

TEAM= Together We Achieve More!

I have been a bit slack! But this amazing thing happened last week, and I was fortunate enough to capture it all on camera. It warms my heart. 

It all started with an excited child tossing his Toque in the air. But the problem was... it LANDED ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE FENCE!!! So we were on the case to rescue the wayward hat. The first suggestion was to just go out the gate and into the neighbour's yard. But my mischievous brain got the better of me and I decided to challenge the children by encouraging them to find a solution on this side of the fence!

The Problem

 The first attempt. One of our digging shovels... but it was too short!

You might not know this, but on the other side of that fence was an 'adult' digging shovel. So I could easily reach over a grab it for them, but I encouraged them to solve the problem... a problem within a problem, one might say! So team work ensued and the children worked together to push our tinkering table closer to the fence.

 It was a bit wobbly, but teamwork AGAIN... the children held the table still while one brave child climbed on top.

 The shovel is retrieved!

Oooh, i'm really mischievous!! The children still had trouble reaching the shovel over the fence (being vertically challenged once again reared it's ugly head!), so the idea was put forward by one of the children that our ride on car tipped on it's side might make up the difference needed.

Did it work?

It's over the fence!!

Getting closer!!!

YES!!!!

Celebrations all around. Hooray for working together! I will point out that this toque was QUITE far from the fence, so it was pretty spectacular.

Art provocation for tomorrow. I wonder what the children will do with all this. My thought is weaving, but i'm interested to see what they come up with.

A close up of the ribbon laid out on the table... a perfect canvass for weaving, but we'll have to wait and see!

I'm quite excited to share this photo with the children tomorrow. This is what our backyard sky looked like after all the children had left for the day. It was beautiful!!