Gardening

Gardening 

This term, as part of our science topic ‘Get, Set, Grow’ and due to our entry into the Sidmouth Rotary Club’s annual gardening competition, the children in Class One have had the opportunity to prove that they do in fact have green fingers!  From the very youngest, to those who are a little longer in the tooth, the Class One team have been busy in the garden, digging, planting, watering, pruning and building walls as we prepared our patch for the judges’ visit!

Thinking about our theme ‘Art In Nature’, the children have listened to music with nature as a theme, including The Beatles’ ‘Strawberry Fields’, ‘Lavenders Blue’ sung by Laura Wright and accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Fats Domino’s ‘Blueberry Hill’  and Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘Scarborough Fair’ as they have worked away whether rain or shine. They learnt some of the lyrics and even decorated them carefully to hang in the garden by appropriate plants once they had found out a little about the meaning of the words, and history of the songs and bands.

Back in the classroom they were also busy investigating the fruit and vegetables that were beginning to grow in our vegetable plot and tubs, making observational drawings of strawberries and tomatoes, as well as bean plants and sunflowers.

Choosing to take their learning in art outside, the children used treasures that they found in the field to transient nature art, manipulating, exploring and experimenting with patterns and shapes in the style of Andy Goldsworthy and Heather Jansch. In line with their learning about ‘Land Art’, the children completed a large-scale class ‘Nature Sculpture’ of a seahorse, which is now proudly displayed in our garden area. Working more independently they explored clay to make sculptures of fish and hedgehogs, as well as using natural items such as pinecones and twigs to construct owls and patterned artwork.

 

Having taken four visiting judges on a tour of our grounds, Reginald and Tom were pleased to join Miss Harvey-Jones in attending the The Sidmouth Rotary Club's annual award ceremony to collect the shield for achieving "Most Improved Garden". The children in Class One were delighted that all of their hard work has paid off; the garden is in full bloom and is certainly looking glorious, it is well worth a visit.