Junior school gardening club just started

[Jeanied]

Okay so my local primary school has just started up the gardening club again this year - with 22 enthusiastic junior aged children.

We had our first session last Monday and went to see the two beds that the club had prepared for them in an out of the way spot. There were a few flowering brassicas (which needed hauling up) a few volunteer potatoes, some strawberry plants and some over the hill radishes and onions. Everyone got all excited and pulled radishes - then by accident the strawberries got pulled up as well (ooops).

So we set about sowing seeds indoors as it was now raining. We sowed loads of sunflower seeds, some lettuces, beetroot, cut flowers, marigolds and cornflowers. This was Monday. Today (Thursday) I checked and we have some germination going on!

Marigolds, cornflowers and cut flowers were already showing signs

Now I want some tips on what I can do next - what can we sow to harvest before the third week in July and what can we sow and when to harvest in September / October?

And most importantly what do the kids enjoy most of all?

[Two_Sheds]

most importantly what do the kids enjoy most of all?

in my experience:

- watering: anything & everything
- podding/shelling beans & peas: they'd do this every week & not get bored
- eating peas
- hunting frogs
- playing with snails
- bickering
- quizzes
- running about games*

what they haven't liked very much:

- sowing seeds
- planting plants
- weeding



* if I run out of inspiration or they're bored, I do a running about game, which goes like this:
If you think a potato is poisonous, run over there >>>>>
If you think rhubarb is a fruit, run over there >>>>>

and so on ...

[WendyC]

The book I use to help with my gardening club is "The Playground Potting Shed". Good ideas for what will grow in term time. Radishes are fast and look appealing to children, funniest is their faces when they bite into one!

[di]

We just have twelve children, although that seems to have crept to fifteen. I find it easier to split them into groups. Last term the Year six group started renovating the courtyard area outside the canteen, I've made that their responsibilty this term too. I then split the others into groups of three and gave them a bed each to weed and then we got some carrots, radishes and lettuce in.

Also, at the start of last week, I got a year five or six child to partner up with a year three or four, gave them a piece of paper each and asked them to write down ten things they wanted to do at Eco Club. Top of each list was Bug hunts, some actually wanted to plant stuff Other ideas were revamping the wildlife area, eating lavendar shortbread, making Scarecrows, bird watching and eating pear or apple crumble...oh and chocolate courgette cake...me thinks we spoilt them a little last year!

The two things I try to keep in mind are, 1) Safety first. 2) Have fun. I see the club as a way to get them interested in growing veg, being outdoors and learning a bit about wildlife and how to preserve/ encourage it...I don't want to put them off by demanding they weed for an hour when their concentration clicked off after ten minutes and they'd now prefer to search for slugs.

[alldigging]

My friend bought her 4 round and two of their friends. After a walk round the allotment which they loved, we went back to my garden for planting seeds.
They planted marigold seeds, beans and peas.
They all did a mint cutting too and finished with a great game of see who can pick the most dandelions off my lawn.

[jackyspratty]

We have 3 groups
1. A foundation/reception group, a group of 5 5 year olds that do a 3 week rotation. This seems to fit their attention span and gives the whole year group a taster of all activities.
2. We have 2 groups of 10 6-11year olds, one after school and one in friday afternoon golden time.

Fave activities - watering watering watering, and figting over watering cans!
Seeds
planting
Craft actvites especially the younger ones
leaf raking and using the mahoosive monster hand things to pick up the leaves!
Eating!!


Craft activities
scarecrow design and making
CD decorating as bird scarers
Making plant labels


Least favourite activities
Composting!!!
Anything to do with chicken manure pellets!!

Quick fixes are lettuce, beets, herbs, peas/shoots, radish. A tray of pea shoots is a graet way for the kids to take something home too, plus its cheap!
I find the trick is to plan way in advance! At least a term ahead!
Do themes planting - a salad bed needs advanced planning but you could show several types of lettuce, variety is the spice of life bed!

We are doing a three sisters thing with a baby bear squash, beans and strawberry popcorn! We did a session stating with the sticky supermarket popcorn, then looking at the seed, then planting some for me totake home and bung in magic box, then eating plain strawberry popcorn popped, then eating raw swet corn straight from the cob. They were just as enthusiastic about the latter varietes of corn as the sticky e mumberd sugar laden stuff!!

Games
Black card - 2 pieces with a small window cut out same position on each side. Taped together down one side to make a slide. The children collect a leaf and position in the window and hold up to the light. You get a great effect that differs from leaf to leaf.

Rainbow - a piece of card with double sidedsticky tape on. Tell the children the end of a rainbow has landed in the garden abd they are to collect al the colours of a rainbow. Small portions of leaf/flower only.

Get 4 sticks make a frame in the dirt - whats the tiniest insect they can find?

Ill have more of a think and get back to you!

[Jeanied]

Here is the children's wish list of what to grow - some interesting ideas here!


Radish
Beetroot
Peas
Beans
sweet pepper
chilli pepper
sweetcorn
carrot
lettuce
pumpkin
parsnip
broccoli
Tomatoes
potatoes
cabbage
onions
watercress
spinach

basil

Strawberry
Blackberry
blueberry
apple
cranberry
lemon
orange
rhubarb

Sunflower
roses
daisy
orchids

[Feral007]

Our local little school won a grant for the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden for schools. It's very complicated - you have to have a kitchen garden and a kitchen. The kids learn to grow things, and then how to cook those things into food and eat them. It's a lot of work for the school community but very interesting. To raise funds this year they put together a very professional looking recipe book asking the local community to supply recipes from their family. Each recipe had to have either a fruit or a vegetable as one ingredient.
Could the kids put together a simple recipe book of meals that they could make at home that contain veg that they might grow at school? There's prob lots of websites that have easy healthy kids recipes that they might enjoy putting together to take home. The parents from our school all remark about how their kids will eat things at the school kitchen that they'd never consider eating at home.

[Jeanied]

I think I am going to do some tasting and growing sessions. If this is possible given all the risk assessments we will need.
I was clearing and hoeing the plot yesterday to keep the annual weeds down - it is all awaiting a massive planting session when they get back from half term break in a week. Happy to see a toad hopping round the place and taking refuge under the 4 volunteer potato plants still in there!

[Two_Sheds]

I think I am going to do some tasting and growing sessions. If this is possible given all the risk assessments

I had to take a Food Safety course before I was allowed to do any cooking (the school paid)

Even so, I don't tend to let the children eat anything on site, except for peas. Def not strawberries, because they're a known allergen ~ we pick the produce, and I send them home. They're allowed to eat the produce after I've handed the children over to their parents

[Jeanied]

Oh, drat - I haven't done the course and I really am running out of ideas to keep 22 nimble juniors busy for an hour on a wet Monday afternoon! I thought a bit of tasting would be ok - but I could hand that over to the teacher to do!

[Jeanied]

All I can think of is label making at the moment.

[Nicos]

Bit late now maybe- but how about chopping up some of last years catalogues and comparing shapes, colours , sizes of say a tomato/radish/carrot/spuds/lettuce/apples etc so they actually can see there are lots of different types?

Bit of glue and some sugar paper and scissors used to keep me happy on many a caravan holiday when I was a nipper

[alldigging]

Overground underground.
Cut up a seed catalogue for pictures for cutting and sticking. (Or is it just me who still loves cutting and sticking)

Mini scarecrows if you have boxes of craft stuff and glue.

Do a vote of their fav veggies and then fav fruit. Or what they've never tried.

Sunflowers on paper plates if you have piles of crepe paper.

[Jeanied]

Thanks for the suggestions folks - I just got back from the club and luckily the real rain lightened to a drizzle so most of us were able to work outside.

The inside jobs included label writing, artwork of fruit and veg and radish tasting. Most of them tried radish slices and only a couple didn't like them.

The outside jobs included hoeing the beds, weed pulling, making cane tripods and planting peas and beans, planting out courgettes, sweetcorn and making compost. But the runaway success from everyone was - wait for it - chicken poo pellet sprinkling! Who would have guessed it?