Little Garden Fingers (Part Three): Garden to Table

With some new plants, sunflowers and herbs in our garden, our little ones began watering and watching with anticipation. Each day they would check to see how much taller their sunflowers were as well as ensure the other plants and herbs were growing well. 🌿

Our children were invited to nurture a sunflower seed of their very own. They loved this and they wrote their name on their individual pots – taking ownership and responsibility. We studied visuals of the growth stages of plants so they could monitor where their sunflower seedling was. They also used rulers to measure how tall their sunflower seedling was growing daily – a great way to include early mathematic concepts in a fun way!

The day finally came when our little ones could use some of our herbs to make some food. They gathered the herbs from the garden, recognizing that some were flowers and not for eating. Thyme, Coriander, Parsley, Basil and Mint were the herbs picked and as they did this, they smelt each one to gain a better understanding.  After collecting them in a bowl, they carefully washed the herbs and dried them – ready for a recipe.

Our recipe was for a herb and cream cheese dip and our little ones had turns putting all the greenery in the blenders and starting up the motor. They loved this part a lot as it was very satisfying to see the herbs change state, as well as the exciting noise! 😊

Next, they added cream cheese and blended it all again. Watching carefully to see what had changed, they found that it was quite hard and solid and may need something else added to soften it. So after a bit of discussion, they thought it would be good to add a bit of milk and blend it again. Voila – this worked!

After carefully scooping the dip onto crackers, our little ones did the final taste test at afternoon teatime. Many of our little ones loved it and wanted more!

Our little ones were so proud of their dip that they couldn’t wait to share it with their loved ones on pick up.

With some additional herbs and flowers left over, the next day we set up a gardening provocation with playdough and invited our little ones to be little gardeners inside. They created their own little gardens by arranging the plants and flowers upon the playdough, as well as using scissors to ‘trim’ their garden as some of them thought they were growing too much. 😊

Gardening allows science and nature exploration in our early childhood curriculum. It is where our tamariki learn to question and explore concepts as well as nurture their curiousity about plants and where food comes from.

Children are also learning to care and have respect for the land (kaitiakitanga) and are developing skills and knowledge that support them to care for nature throughout their life.

Garden to table – what a great experience for children to learn about. 😊