Welcome to our Garden!

Welcome to Golden Sands School! I’m Nina from PiPS, and I’m excited to work with your school and establish a new school garden with you!

In Term One, I had the pleasure of working with the Year One classes. I am surprised by the curiosity and interest of the tamariki, and I’m pleased to feel that they have gotten to know me by the end of Term One.

Golden Sands School already has two worm farms, so we had a morning learning about the anatomy of worms, the difference between earthworms and tiger worms, and what they like to eat. We then took action by freshening up the two worm farms, feeding them food scraps and newspapers, and exploring how worm tea is beneficial in our school garden.

After the long school holidays, the existing school garden was a bit overgrown. We were lucky enough to have sunny weather each week and spent time outside exploring which insects we could see and find, as well as starting to weed the veggie patches. The tamariki sprinkled their first veggie seeds such as carrots, radishes, and calendula for the bees straight into the garden, and we started planting seeds for our winter crop into punnets, such as silverbeet, cabbage, and celery. I loved seeing how well they took care of these seedlings. These will be planted in Term Two into the new garden beds.

Another fun activity was making an insect hotel out of tin cans. We filled each can with different natural materials like rocks, sticks, straw, and pine cones where the insects can hide. We placed the “bug hotel” outside, and hopefully, lots of insects will start to move in!

We learned about herbs, their different aromatic smells, their uses in cooking and teas, and their medicinal properties. The kids’ favorite smells were lemon balm and mint! By creating a herb garden, we planted some new herbs such as rosemary, oregano, thyme, and lemon balm along with the existing garden.

Before Easter, the tamariki decorated white butterflies recycled from milk bottles. That was definitely a favourite fun activity for the kids. We put them on wooden sticks and placed them in the garden, they will hopefully scare away the real white butterflies from laying their eggs on our vegetable plants.

On our last day before the school holidays, the tamariki explored how to save seeds. I brought a sunflower head, some dried flowers, and some seed pods from kale and broccoli. We learned about the different sizes seeds have, how to find them, and the cycle of creating more plants from an existing plant. The tamariki were astonished to see that some seeds are so tiny yet can grow a whole new vegetable plant. They filled a little seed packet to take home. I loved hearing them say that they would give it to their parents as a present.

A fun ending was to have a closer look inside seasonal fruits by cutting them open and noticing their unique appearances inside, including where to find the seeds. We discussed how fruits like feijoa, pear, apple, and oranges will soon be planted in the school garden, and in the years to come, the Year One level will be able to harvest fruits from the trees. One boy commented, “Fruits and vegetables make you grow big and strong, and you will live a long life” – wise words from a six-year-old! The kids then drew colourful pictures of the fruits. Finally, the treat was to have a little taste of all the fruits.

Happy holidays, tamariki! I’m looking forward to seeing you all back in Term Two when we start building the new garden. Exciting times ahead!