Lettuce Celebrate!

Week 4 of Connect: Gardening

This week was definitely one of the more garden-focused sessions of the whole group. We got to learn how to plant some seeds, learned about our birth flowers, and then we got to plant three flowers in a pot to take home.

We started off the group by planting an assortment of seeds into some egg cartons that Amy glued to a paper plate. The kids had the choice between an assortment of seeds such as sunflowers, squash, lettuce, Swiss chard, and more! The kids first started off by putting some dirt in each slot of the egg carton. They then planted the seeds into each slot, and then covered it with a bit of dirt. During this, Amy talked a bit about how seeds grow, and why we plant them this way. She also told the kids that these cartons could be planted straight into dirt after the seeds began to sprout, and then they would grow into a full plant.

Next, Amy surprised the kids with a cool activity about each child’s birth month flower. She started off by asking if the kids knew what their birth flowers were, but none of them knew, which made the activity that much more fun. She then passed out colouring sheets to each child that had their birth flower on it. It was so cool to see all the kids’ reactions to learning about their special flowers.

As our main activity, the kids planted three flowers into a large pot. In groups of two, the kids filled their pots half way with dirt, then planted each flower, and put more dirt on top. At the end, they got to decorate their pots as well.

While this session was not as ‘artsy’ as the others, it was a great way to teach the kids some practical gardening skills.

I am so excited to see what is to come next week, as it is our final session!

June 13, 2023

-Jael, BigsNBC Volunteer