Johnson House
Preschool
Story by Educator Sofia
Recently the children in Johnson House preschool noticed that most of the lemons on our tree are becoming yellow, and they were becoming very excited at the idea of being able to pick them soon. Along with a lot of excitement, this discussion also sparked concern for the tree, as some of the children noticed that its leaves looked a bit discoloured and that the trunk was leaning on one side.
We gathered around the veggie garden, where the children started digging a hole to accommodate the tree. The question was then asked “How big do you think the hole should be?”.
While digging, we found a lot of grubs and worms. Luisa and Aydin remembered that grubs are not good for our soil. “They eat the plants in the dirt,”, “And they are not good!”, were comments made by the children. Questions were then was raised about the worms, and the children all came to the conclusion that “Worms are good for the soil, they eat the food that we don’t want anymore”.
After replanting the tree, everyone helped to water it. Later in the afternoon we added some worm tea and castings to the freshly planted tree to help it grow strong.
Gardening is a great hands-on learning opportunity, where children are able to further develop their knowledge of the land and how to care for it.
