Guest Posted January 7, 2012 Share Posted January 7, 2012 Hello and Happy New Year to you all Next term we are covering the topic Grow and Growing and I am looking for some new ideas for Pre-schoolers. We do the usual planting bulbs, growing cress, plant cycle etc Any inspirational ideas would be really welcomed Thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 7, 2012 Share Posted January 7, 2012 Hi-having just re-read a thread I started on learning walls I was reminded when we asked our children about what we could do for a growing topic one reply was 'Yorkshire puddings grow'. We incorporated some growing foods in our topic and stretched 'growing' into areas not just plants-photos of ourselves as babies, we made bread, yorkshire puddings of course, we measured the children's height on the wall the first day and end of half term to see how they'd grown. Sure there is more when you think laterally and ask your children. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deb Posted January 7, 2012 Share Posted January 7, 2012 Buying some caterpillars from somewhere like Insectlore to experience the life cycle of the butterfly first hand. We are also investigating buying some living eggs to see chicks hatch from a company called www.livingeggs.co.uk. I'm currently asking parents if they would like to do this and whether they would like to fundraise to pay for it. We did this a couple of years ago and it was fantastic (not with this company though). One little girl sat for the whole afternoon by the incubator watching as the chicks hatched, whilst the rest of us kept rushing over at the slightest sign of life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enuffsenuf Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 (edited) A really interesting one is to take a lemonade bottle and cut a slit along the length (starting about 5cm from the neck and ending 5 cm before the bottom) of the bottle about an inch wide. Fix the bottle to a window sill with bluetack so that the slit is on the top. Fill the bottle with water so it comes right up to the slot. The get hold of some old geraniums (old ones cheap from the garden centre or donated) get the children to break of bits from the plants and slot them into the hole in the bottle so that the bottom of the stem sits in the water and the leaves sit on the top. Over time (and it can take quite a while) the geraniums will start trhowing out roots into the water. Later these can carefully be taken out and potted into compost but be careful because water grown roots are often very brittle so break easily. Another thing you can grow into is clear jelly....get some gelatin make into jelly and so bean seeds into clear pots (small pop bottles with lids cut off). Children can then see the rooting system of plants as they grow. Mung beans in a lemonade bottle will sprout and give you bean sprouts. The company who do seeds of Italy have a scheme for schools etc whereby if you write to them and tell them you are an educational establishment they will send you some old seeds for free. I am chair of the local horticultural society and we have classes in out flower shows for children.....contact your local society and see if they have any ideas or anything they could let you have. The RHS run a special scheme for schools wanting to get more involved...check out their website. Edited January 8, 2012 by enuffsenuf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Fab ideas enuffsenuf, gonna be pinching them especially the gelatin. Thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SueFinanceManager Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 Hi sallyn04 Have you had a chance to read through some of the topics in the Growing section of the topic support forum area.....find it here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 Thank you everybody Some fabulous ideas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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