Annan School has been awarded a year long grant from the Froebel Trust to develop ecological understanding through engagement with gardening. Helen our Forest and Gardening teacher is leading the project which reaches every age group at Annan.
Here is a report from Helen on the work so far…
We have had a lot of fun in the garden this term. We looked closely at seeds that were found in the wild and in our garden and marvelled at their forms, they were so diverse and beautiful. We tried to find out how they were distributed, and the wind blew in a gust to show us how the artichoke seeds flew around, others we realised were surrounded by very tasty fruit, like the ones in our apples. We saved seeds in envelopes for the Spring planting.
We also investigated the compost in our rotating bin, it was full of worms and smelt of fresh earth. We were amazed at how many worms were in there and wondered how they got there? The Infants couldn’t believe that it had all come from garden waste and our left-over bits of fruit.
We have also been working on our garden beds, pulling out the weeds and the lemon balm, which was like the giant turnip as it took 6 Elders to pull it out! The Chestnuts enthusiastically created a new bed in the playground, they planted it up and created a new path to protect the bed from being run through at playtime.
This week we have been planting bulbs for bees and butterflies which will bring us colour and diversity in the Spring.