This week on the allotment the children chatted about the jobs we needed to get busy with. As usual we listed all the jobs on our job board and set to work. We have been drying out wood over the spring and summer months ready for our winter fires so the first job of the day was to gather all of our wheelbarrows and transfer the wooden logs to our wood store. The children worked hard manoeuvering their wheelbarrows around the vegetable beds and into the fire pit before stacking the logs neatly into our store. The children worked together tirelessly to complete the task and were so proud of themselves once it was finished. We are now all prepared for the winter season and cooking on the fire.
After lunch we began to tackle the sunflowers. They were full of sunflower seeds which we needed to remove and dry out in preparation for planting next year. We were amazed by the amount of seeds we collected. We also collected lots of nasturtium seeds which we plan to use in our growing packs next year.
Soon it was time to collect our amazing apples. We have had a huge crop this year and after Lisa gave the tree a little shake the children were able to collect them and take them back to nursery to share with all the units where we can engage in cooking, cutting and eating activities. The children giggled and screamed as the apples fell from the tree. We couldn't believe how many we were able to collect - a whole wheelbarrow full! We soon realised our apple tree needed a hair cut and using the loppers we began to give it a trim. The children watched on as the branches started to fall but what would we do with all of these branches? The children suggested we place them into the compost bin which they did. We then began to cut back our other fruit bushes. We also have a huge tree which has grown a lot this year and is now blocking some of the light into our greenhouse so Lisa began to cut back the largest branches. The children believed they were tree surgeons and began dragging the huge branches to our compost bins. As the branches coming down became larger and larger the children's mathematical language began to flow. "My branch is huge" said Rupert. "My branch is huger" replied Joseph.
The end of the day came too quickly and just as we sat on the bus the rain began to fall. What a busy day we had had. Next week we are planning on tidying up our orchard and weeding some of the beds which we will then cover and get ready for Spring time.
