The children were introduced to learning how to take care of worms to help the whole school garden. Both the West and East Wingers participated in feeding them kitchen scraps, cleaning the bins, and taking care of the bedding with recycled paper. We have seen the children’s innate love of nature come through in practical ways – they seem to have a time clock in their bodies that rings: “feeding time”.
Luke: Can we go to check on the worms?
Cooper: I want to check the worms too, to see if they’re fine.
Teacher Katherine: We are going to check and Cooper is really concerned that the worms need care.
Cooper: Yeah. If we don’t check them now, they might die because we didn’t see them for a long time.
Theo: I want to check the carrots that we planted.
Cooper: Are they ready to pull out?
Teacher Katherine: We can check when we visit the garden.
Miles: Can I go and check the carrots, too?
This work has brought them in close proximity to nature’s timeline and their own integration to its health. They are joyous to watch the garden grow and to reap the outcome of their hard work by harvesting what they’ve planted.
They have pride in sharing the bounty when taking it home. With these experiences children practice patience, working together, instill important life skills, and understand how their actions have a huge impact on their environment.
Here they work on a sign for you.
“Free. From the garden.”
-Teacher Katherine