Week 4: Wonder and Awe in the Garden

I feel like writing one of those cheesy credit-card ads:

Weekend hours spent recruiting husband to haul straw bales and dirt: 6
Hours spent unloading dirt (alone and in the dark): 1.5
Money spent on bales, soil amendment, and organic seeds: $85
Patience expressed keeping children engaged in planting seeds on our last hot day: Maximum
Mornings spent hand-watering garden (so far): 21
Sound of wonder and awe as children discovered their first sprouts:  Priceless.

On Thursday morning the kids ventured to our straw bale garden to check on it and sprinkle with water. I had to forgo my plan to have them do an extension exercise on measuring and tallying--they were so delighted and enthralled by the new growth emerging from their garden beds that I had to stand back and relish their awe and wonder. It seems a rare thing these days to get kids excited by something that doesn't involve beeps and flashes or at least their best buddy. I wish I could have captured their voices as they discovered the tiny leaflets emerging from their very own garden beds.  (A note to any teachers who may read this: if you have the budget, provide each student with their very own plot. It makes all the difference to have each child feel a sense of ownership of their own seedlings.)

Other highlights of the week: We're continuing to work on musicianship through a game exploring the rhythms inherent in our names, and this week we added melody. (See if your child can sing you the "teasing melody" found in most children's songs over the centuries.)  We started a new chapter book about a colonial pioneer girl, The Courage of Sarah Noble by Alice Dalgliesh, and the kids wrote diary entries imagining they were either Sarah or her father. While in the garden we talked about what caused the seeds to sprout (water and warmth) and then through a Q&A exploration the kids concurred on a plant's goal (besides producing food for us or wildlife): survival of the species. The kids enjoyed a scavenger hunt, finding seeds throughout the backyard. We examined enough seeds in the open air to discover the four primary methods of seed dispersal: wind, carried by animal, weight, and explosion.

 

Back in the classroom, we examined all of the seeds collected and separated them into these categories as we tallied each type of seed. Some of the seeds required animated debate before the kids agreed whether their primary method of dispersal was wind or weight, explosion or animal, etc. We were surprised that despite all the acorns and cat-tails collected, most of the seeds fell under the explosion category.

Finally, I gave the kids a pile of materials and no directions except one: work together and figure out how to make a scarecrow. They rose to the challenge and made a scarecrow with striking resemblance to Kris Kiler! (Thanks to the Kiler family for donating the wardrobe).

Don't tell the kids, but this morning I watched as a Black Phoebe landed first on the scarecrow and then in the middle of the garden bed, where it scurried about for several bites before I chased it away.

Highland Learning Studio kids rock!