After Year 1 had made their ‘souper’ soup and sold it to their parents, the children were asked where they had got their vegetables from for making the soup. Many of the children replied, “From ASDA.” Another question was posed by the Year 1 teachers, “Where do Asda get their vegetables from?” Following this, a discussion was had involving information about how some people grow their own vegetables in their gardens. “What if someone wants to grow their own vegetables but doesn’t have a garden – would this stop them?” The discussion prompted so many questions from the children that the staff decided to arrange a trip to a local community garden in Salop Drive, so that the children could see how vegetables grow.
Over a 2 week period, all of the children from Year 1 visited the allotment in Salop Drive. They were totally immersed in their learning and were full of questions. “Do bananas grow in Smethwick?” “Can we get honey from bees?” “How do we plant seeds?” Tim, who works at the allotment, was able to answer all of these questions and more besides. After a time of questions and answers, Tim played a guessing game with the children. They were asked what they thought particular plants were. Mrs Kaur showed a great aptitude at correctly identifying the different plants from the smell of their leaves.
After the children had seen what types of produce can be grown at the allotment, Tim informed the children that they could pick, fresh from the ground, some spinach and elephant garlic and that it would be cooked and eaten while the children were there. Every child eagerly waited to eat the freshly cooked vegetables – in their words the food was “Better than McDonalds!”
So now, the Year 1 children know exactly where vegetables come from and that not too far away you can grow them, pick them and eat them.
A BIG thank you goes to Tim for making the children’s learning real!