Nature study: Watering our plants

Friday 11th May 2018

Gardening assists children to learn valuable lessons about patience as they wait for plants to grow, responsibility as they see how necessary their care is to the garden, and even loss when our plants die.They learn about nurturing a life and what it takes to keep something alive

Children growing up without full experiences of the natural world, such as watching plants on TV instead of investigating them physically, sadly have limited frames of reference. To limit a child’s natural curiosity, is to deny him or her the ability later to make good decisions when faced with moving ahead in life, and dealing with practical and emotional issues.

Certain gardening activities at certain ages provide some of the best learning platforms for this development. Young children have to learn the very basics of the world they are in, within material form. But most important is how they can physically interact with it. This provides the basis for practical intelligence in the adult world. According to the Reggio Emilia approach, the environment is the third teacher.

Our children have begun taking care of the environment we have developed together within the room and have made it a part of our routine to water and tend to our indoor plants. Through the use of garden materials our children were able to explore the possibilities and gain the understanding of density, weight, malleability, porosity and suchlike through this simple exercise.  

“The water is going into the dirt…you can’t see it anymore” Said Finn. As he observed the soil absorb the water. Finn was facinated by the texture and structure of soil. Olivia sprayed her water bottle to cover the leaves “Drinking water” She observed.

We explained that water is absorbed through the roots and that air is taken in through the leaves. We were able to observe the physical aspects of the roots to see that water travels upwards from the root to the stem to absorb the water.

We watched a video to reiterate this point. Gus Said “It must be thirsty.” As he watered his plant. Lola, Finnley, Teddy and Sophie were focused on handling the water bottle and using their hands in new ways, pushing their pinger down on the trigger and building on their palmer grips.

At this stage, our children are interested in the exploration of material aspects of plants, soil and water. Plants can be pulled to bits to understand the components.

They can observe that different surfaces such as shiny, dense, fluid and malleable are good and necessary experiences. As educators we have used this language to help build their knowledge and provide adjectives to describe what they are sensing when they experience texture and the substance of it.

Gardening is a project filled with adventure, experimentation, and learning and our children love to learn when they’re having hands on experience as well as the satisfaction of nurturing life.