Over the past two weeks, the children in Atwood Reception classes have been looking at the stories ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ and ‘the Princess and the Pea’. Through these books we have upped our interest in growing plants to help the creatures in our local environment, as well as making our space look beautiful!
The topic kicked off with a giant beanstalk growing in our creative room over lunchtime. The children all wrote witness reports of what they could see and what they thought had happened to help us understand why it was there. We planted our own beans to grow beanstalks in the schools allotment area, I hope they don’t grow as big as the one in the story! We also planted ipomoea (morning glory) seeds we had collected from the flowers last year. The children enjoyed cracking open the seed heads to expose the seeds inside, then planting and watering them in our outdoor area.
This week our story has been ‘the Princess and the Pea’. The children all had the opportunity to plant their own peas, getting to choose a brown or green variety. They then were challenged to write instructions so that other people, such as Mr. Veale, could also know how to plant a pea seed.
Our potatoes have been growing as it has been getting warmer, and the children helped top up the soil so that more roots would be formed and therefore more potatoes will grow. We are looking forward to cooking these on a fire in Forest School later this year. The children have been looking at the flowers and plants we already have and have been creating wonderful artwork.
