Feathers, Fur or Leaves

Broad Bean Garden Planting

As part of the Inquiry Topic on 'Feathers, Fur or Leaves' the Year 3/4 students have enjoyed spending time planting broad beans and observing their growth.

We have looked at the different elements that enable plants to successfully grow and with the 'hands on' experiences have been better able to understand that plants require soil, sunshine and water to flourish. Planting seeds gently in the soil and being responsible for watering them over time has allowed students to initially observe this process within the classroom. After the seeds began to sprout, they have enjoyed the next stage of planting them out into our school garden bed.

We have all enjoyed participating in conversations and learning as the children engage with these real life experiences. Some of our learning focus areas have included:

• life cycles
• the impact of low and high temperatures on how plants grow
• the impact that different levels of light  shade the sun has on a plants ability to grow
• how to plant small plants into soil

Exploring these concepts in an active way has broadened students understanding and provided rich learning in line with our Inquiry Unit this term - not to mention we have had lots of fun in the process!

We encourage families to nurture their child's emerging interest in the plant life cycle by encouraging their child to grow plants at home. If you have a small garden area at home or some old pot plants you can encourage your child to take the responsibility of planting, watering and caring for some herbs or vegetables. Gardening is a wonderful social activity. As they care for their plant(s) they will feel a sense of pride, they will gain self-confidence, explore language, develop a love of nature, able to consider cause and effect (for example, plants die without water, weeds compete with plants) and discover the nutritional value if what they plant is also something they can add to their food.