In the Classroom: The Fireflies

Learning in the Garden

The Fireflies have been working diligently in the garden this month.We started by digging in the garden and enjoyed exploring all of the living creatures that come with turning the soil over. Everyday was a new adventure.

As part of our garden investigation, we discussed our plan with the garden. What did everyone want to grow? How do plants grow? We talked about how to care for our plants and the norms that come with taking care of a garden. Once the plants are in place, we need to remember to only dig in the mud kitchen. We must remember not to step inside of the garden beds or our plants might break. As our discussions continued, we included conversation about the playground plants as well.  We discussed how to keep the plants alive by not stepping on the growing grasses and flowers.

Then we were ready to start planting our garden! We learned how to gently turn the plants upside down and tap on the bottom to get the plant out of the pot. We learned to gently put our plant in the ground and press all around it so the roots can stick. The Fireflies love to give our garden water and watch all of the changes. When we went in the garden one day and saw some of the strawberries, it was very exciting! We discussed the flowers on the tomatoes and how they will become fruit!

Now that we have established a big and beautiful space to grow and learn, the children take extra care with the garden by giving the plants plenty of water and by weeding. One day we visited after the rain and noted  that the rain watered our garden for us. We saw all of the marigold flowers blooming. When we noticed the flowers on the tomato plants, David said,"That's going to be a tomato!"