Growing Galore!

Here in Recpetion we’ve had a lovely day planting potatoes! The children carefully filled the bags with soil, planted the seed potatoes, covered in soil and watered them. Let’s hope the children remember to water them everyday and soon we will have some yummy potatoes to cook! This has inspired us to see if we can bring our broccoli plants back to life too.

RG Planting Potatoes!

This week we planted our potatoes. We talked about what the potatoes need to grow. These were... the soil, light and water. 

We are looking forward to watching them grow and especially eating them once they are ready. Yum!

Planting beans

In 1L this week we planted beans by: filling our cup with soil, pushing our bean down into the soil, watering the soil and bean, then placing it on the window sill so it can get some sun to help it grow.

We are all excited to look after the plants, by watering them regularly, and watching them grow tall!

Fingers crossed for some sunshine...

Runners-up in Recycling!

Yesterday, we had a visit from Becky and Hazel from Southampton City Council recycling team. They came to an assembly to present our school with 5 Mini Greenhouse Growing Kits from IKEA because our school has put the right things in the right bins.

We decided that Green Council will design a "Recycle-Off" competition to decide which classes will have the kits in their classrooms. At our next Green Council meeting on Monday we will decide the rules of the competition and at the meeting after that we will announce the winners.

We are so pleased to be recognised for our recycling. Go Team Shirley Warren!

Green Council Double trip to Lymington Solar Farm and Aldermoor Farm

Today, 11 members of our school Green Council took their waterproofs with them and set off on an adventure.

First we went to Solent Solar Farm where we saw over 9,000 panels which produce a lot of electricity. Cathy, who showed us around, helped to design and build the Solar Farm which has only been running for three years. We saw the cables that joined the panels to the mains - some of them were very heavy!

 In the afternoon, we visited a different kind of farm. Aldermoor Community Farm is a co-operative in Aldermoor Road and farmer Richard had lots of jobs lined up for us to do. First Richard got out his Lego and made a model. Then he put it in the bin! He got it out again, of course, but he was showing us that we can reuse many things and make them into other things. We shouldn't just throw things away without thinking if we can use them for something else. In the photo we are guessing what H has made out of the blocks.

 Here we are collecting plants to make Comfrey Tea. This isn't for people to drink, it's for plants! We had to find the comfrey plant, take off the leaves, break them up and put them in a barrel. After about four weeks they turn into fertiliser for other plants.

Another job we had to do was planting bean seeds. We used Aldermoor farm's special compost and carefully put each seed in each space. We put a lid on them so mice don't come and eat the seeds.

 We went inside the second polytunnel to see the tomato plants and also saw where the cucumbers grow. At the end Richard kindly gave each child a cucumber.

If you visit the farm when it's open you could also buy chicken food for 20p and Richard let us try this activity out. I think you can see from the smiles that everyone enjoyed this activity, even though it started raining heavily.

We are so lucky to have this community farm so near our school and want to thank Richard for another brilliant trip. Even though the weather wasn't good for us - though the plants liked it - all the children loved it and for us teachers it was exciting to see how much Richard and the team have done since we took a group last year.

You can find more about Aldermoor Community Farm online - they often have open days on Bank Holiday Mondays as well as being open Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays 9am-5pm. Maybe you could visit in the summer holidays and feed the chickens.

Eco Club and their Green Fingers

We are proud to have a school where we look after the environment and this afternoon there was a super sight on our sunny school grounds.

Eco club had come to do some weeding on the bottom playground.

Can you spot what they are wearing to keep safe?

When you come to school tomorrow, have a look and see if you can see the difference around this tree near reception.  If you want to join Eco club it's after school and run by Mrs Bedwell.

Year 1 go to Manor Farm!

We had an excellent day at Manor Farm yesterday. We saw lots of animals, looked around the old home and even had a lesson in the old school. Some of us milked cows, fed pigs, fed chickens, cuddled baby chicks and bunnies... Some of us even saw a baby lamb being born! All of the adults were very impressed with our behaviour. Well done Year 1!

Planting, Growing and Measuring!

2M found and planted conkers during the Autumn term. Now the Horse-chestnut trees are finally beginning to grow, we can measure the progress! 

Caterpillar world in reception

The caterpillars inspired the children to create their own Caterpillar World. Using plasticine they modelled some long and some smaller caterpillars. Using pulses they created patterns on the caterpillars' back. Can you spot the real caterpillars in the background? They are now in their cocoons. We are very much looking forward to the emerging butterflies. Let's just hope this will happen before end of term.