News And Events

Spring Gardening

As we head into Spring it’s a great season to get into the garden and include children on this wonderful diverse experience. 

Gardening is such a versatile activity that can be included in any programme or environment from planting in pots, to growing vines along fences, to developing a large vegetable garden.

Choose some fast-growing vegetables to help create a feeling of success early in the children’s gardening efforts. Vegetables such as; leafy greens (spinach, lettuce, kale), zucchini, peas, beans and spring onion. Tomatoes are also a popular plant as the children can pick and eat the brightly coloured fruit straight from the garden. Having child-sized equipment also helps in the children’s autonomy in the experience.

There are great number of learning opportunities to happen while gardening.  Through science children start to understand the environmental needs of the plants and how to support these.  Respecting nature and papatūānuku and the gifts she gives us as well as the nutrition for feeding our growing minds and bodies is another valuable learning opportunity.  Mathematical concepts can also easily be incorporated into gardening by; counting crops, measuring, weighing, estimating, and comparing the size of vegetables produced.  There are also sensory exploration and learning to be had by getting hands into the dirt, creating mud, delicately handling the seedlings, and feeling the water as the plants get watered.

At Nurtured at Home, Educators provide experiences such as gardening, and we can all spend more time outside in the garden and share the successes we have through photos and celebrate children’s learning in their portfolios.