Hands in the Dirt: How Gardening Enriches Elementary Outdoor Learning Programme

Written by Kerry Craig, Outdoor Learning Leader/Teacher

Gifts from the ISP Fund have helped us to purchase equipment for the environmental scientists, entomologists, horticulturists, naturalists and carpenters from ECF3/4 to Grade 5. This equipment has supported more children in the garden with nature research, exploration and working with natural materials. 

 

With eight raised garden beds and a greenhouse, gardening is quite a big part of our Elementary Outdoor Learning Programme. Gardening is extremely beneficial for children (and adults) and it is a wonderful way to spend time outdoors, to connect to nature, and to see the interdependence of all life. 

While gardening, our learners become naturalists, botanists, horticulturists, and entomologists. They use all of our ATL (Approaches to Learning) skills and a whole lot of patience!  

While it can be a little challenging to tend to the garden during the summer break, with the help of our onsite gardening and maintenance personnel, our garden continues to be productive.

There’s nothing more exciting than pulling up a bunch of leaves to find a vegetable waiting at the end! Back in June, we enjoyed many vegetables, including radishes, beetroot, tomatoes, spinach and lettuce.  We also had a healthy crop of zucchini/courgettes and cucumbers when we returned in August. These had been planted by a Grade 5 Exhibition Group last May. 

What could be better than tasting vegetables that you grew yourself? Most of our learners are keen to give them a try, and some even decide that they like something that they hadn’t tried before. 

 

If our friends are all tasting something, we often want to try it as well! Usually, we do our tasting right there in the garden or outdoor classroom, though sometimes these vegetables are taken back to class and used in baking.

This year, the Gardening Club ASA  (Grades 3 and 4) planted some seeds for an Autumn crop. ECF, Grade 1 and 2 learners helped by preparing the soil and flattening it with the rakes. During our sessions, we also learn how to use outdoor tools safely and in the correct way. We were lucky to have horse manure donated from an ISP family last spring, and children helped to integrate this into the soil (after they got over their initial hesitation of working with horse poop!). 

As much as possible, we try to be sustainable by using the water from the water barrel as we learn about the water cycle and how much more beneficial it is for our plants to have this water with natural nutrients than water treated with chemicals. 

Our learners LOVE weeding and pulling plants out of the ground. Although weeds can be a pest when they arrive between our planned seeds (we often refer to them as uninvited guests to a party!), we also learn that many weeds are helpful to the garden. After all, they are plants too. They provide food for different insects and birds, and many of them are extremely useful for making medicine and even for eating.

The Gardening Club has gathered some nettles and is drying them to make tea. Through their Plant of the Week programme, they learned that dock and plantain leaves can help to soothe a nettle sting, and we had to put this into practice several times while cleaning the garden beds!

An important part of our gardening experience is noticing the incredible range of creatures that hide in our garden. We appreciate that they have chosen to be in our garden, and we show them respect. We learn about pollinators and how important they are to the world, and by exploring plants and insects/arachnids in the garden, we learn a lot about interdependence in the world.

As you can see, gardening at ISP Elementary involves quite a lot of work—but the constant opportunities for learning, along with the excitement, wonder, and awe we all experience, make every bit of time and effort worthwhile.

In 2024/25, we hope to enhance Outdoor Learning with several robust microscopes, some hydroponic equipment, weather station materials and other outdoor learning/environmental science resources, as well as enhancing experiential learning outdoors for all children, also have strong connections with the work we are doing with STEM throughout the school. ​  

 

Gardening with Young Learners

Here are some of the benefits of gardening with children:

• There are opportunities to develop both fine and gross motor skills.
• Children learn how to use a variety of tools safely. 
• It provides direct connections with nature and hopefully a love and respect for living things.
• Children are outside in the fresh air doing physical activity.
• It encourages an awareness of sustainability and healthy eating.
• It provides opportunities for sensory development - using all 5 senses.
• It creates a sense of community and collaboration.
• It provides therapeutic benefits as it is calming and stress relieving for many children.
• There are many opportunities for STEM skills and understandings such as life cycles, soil and growth.
• It links to other areas of the curriculum, such as maths, literacy, social studies and science.
• It encourages self-confidence, responsibility, and patience.
• It can improve close observation skills and focus.