Starting from a seed Initiative

Name of School or ECE Service: Sand Dunes Early Learning Centre

Title of initiative: ‘Starting with a seed’

Description of project:
We would like to implement a project with our children, families and wider community where we can ultimately promote and establish healthy choices for our future children to improve their quality of life and living. Our objective for this project would be to implement an environment and programme that focuses on developing and sharing healthy food choices and behaviours. We endeavour to begin with teaching our children important life skills and knowledge about how to keep themselves healthy by healthy eating and healthy behaviour by incorporating active involvement in their learning, ultimately aiming in sharing this knowledge and learning to the wider world and community creating a positive and healthy living environment.

Our objective for this project is to implement an environment and programme that focuses on developing and sharing healthy food choices and behaviours. We want to encourage through our curriculum and environment and through an extention to the wider community an understanding about what we can do to look after our planet and our bodies.

We want to encourage our children to learn their responsibility to the environment by reducing and reusing waste, and learning about using our natural resources to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

We will begin our project with ‘a seed’. We endeavour to make a vegetable garden in the centre that the children will create from start to finish. This will begin with researching and documenting about how to make and care for a garden (1), it will involve going and getting all the materials and products that we need and proceeding to make our vege patch (2).

We will have a worm farm where we would make a natural compost to fertilise our garden.
We endeavour to grow all the vegetables and herbs that we will need for our weekly menus (which have been approved already by the healthy heart award) and also extend this to fruit plants and trees such as apple, plum, peach and strawberry and tomato plants (3).

We have enough outdoor space for this project to be created. This would include making soups, smoothies, juices etc (4).The children, teachers, parents and families will share the responsibility of caring and maintaining the vegetable and fruit garden. From this idea we endeavour to extend this learning into different areas of the curriculum.

We want to be able to broaden our menu with an extensive range of vegetable options. However our current situation with our oven is not large enough to cater for a variety of cooking options at one time. A conventional oven with hobs would be more suitable to provide different vegetable options at meal times and cater for making soups, jams etc during the day with the children. (13)

We would like to involve the children and parents by using the produce in our daily cooking and food preparation. We will send home our natural jams and chutneys that we endeavour to make(5), we will hold evening nights with our families where we will cook and sample the foods that we can make from the produce and share recipes from the centre but also parents recipes from home.

We would love to create a recipe book where we would have collated our children, families and teachers favourite healthy recipes (6). We will use these proceeds from the recipe books as a fundraiser for our outdoor environment, encouraging the children holistic well-being through physical education.

We intend to get a glass house which will be used to grow some of our nutritious vegetables, fruits and herbs in (7) and a garden shed to store all our tools and materials (8).

We would also like to create a healthy outdoor eating environment where the children can enjoy their produce and foods in stimulating and natural surroundings. We would ultimately like to create this environment with lots of shade(9), mural painted walls (10) and music(11). We would need small tables and chairs for eating that are suitable for the outside and can cater for 27 children (12).

Phase one:

Research and planning
Learning about the different materials (soils, water properties, compost)
Looking at different plants/ fruits/ materials (Relate to healthy heart tick weekly menus)
Plant research
Building the garden and planter boxes
Dealing with pests
Compost

Phase two:

Planting the seeds
Worm farm
Recycling
Maintaining and caring for the garden
Creating our healthy outdoor eating area
Photosynthesis

Phase three:

Working the garden
Using the produce
Five plus a day
Creating our recipe book
Evaluation of the programme

How we are going to engage the whole community (parents, students and teachers) in this project?

Photos and documenting the process through learning stories, photos and books made by the children of the process.
Ask friends and families to come and talk to the children about their gardening experiences.
Make a gardening journal which will be shared with the families documenting the process beginning from a seed.
Make a compost pile. Ask families to contribute to this by bringing in grass clipping and kitchen waist.
Through newsletters updating the process.
Hold meeting with parents to discuss shared responsibilities.
Local organisations helping with fertilizers and products. Also visiting the local Palmers Garden Centre for gardening advice and support.
Parents involved in helping to care for the gardens and produce making.
Parents nights where we will cook using the vegetables that we have grown and eating dinner.
Working bee’s-where the parents will come in and help with the gardening.
Making chutneys and jams from our produce and sending home to families, grandparents etc.
Making recipe books for families with new recipes that we have created using our produce and old favourites, untimely creating a cook book that could be purchased by all our families and the wider community.
Each child gets a tomato plant which they will independently take care of and take home in the weekends to share with their families.
Trips to the local library to read books and find books on growing vegetables.

What are the expected outcomes for the ECE service community?

Short term outcomes:

Through this project we endeavour to encourage the children to eat what they grow and develop an appreciation for where food comes from. We hope that this will encourage an interest and enthusiasm for healthy food which will be taken from the centre environment and shared in their home environment and wider community for example, grandparents, friends, cousins etc.
The children will get to see firsthand where food comes from and learn about how to maintain and care for their environment through a hands on approach. They will learn to take responsibility for their garden, nurturing and developing confidence in problem solving and persisting with difficulties.
They will get to experiment with food and learn how to create a fabulous meal, jam or soup which they created from a seed.
The children will develop a sense of pride and responsibility through these hands on meaningful activities, where their excitement and knowledge will grow alongside the garden growing.
As a response to the recipe book we are hoping that our families will benefit by having a range of healthy options which the children are familiar with and will enjoy.
We would create a link on our website that updates our families and the wider community on our ongoing progress.

Long term outcomes:

The children will learn lessons on life through this practical experience.
The early years are the most important years for establishing healthy eating habits. We endeavour to provide a programme and environment that encourages these positive eating habits that can continue with them and be passed on with them to their future generation.
The children will gain knowledge and habits of living a healthy lifestyle such as preparing and cooking their own meals, growing their own vegetables and fruit.
Ultimately we are hoping that once our children have reached adolescence and adulthood where they make food decisions for themselves that they will be more inclined to purchase fresh produce creating healthy choices and an understanding for the environment, for example, a pumpkin to make soup rather than tinned pumpkin soup or an apple over a packet of chips as a snack.

How our project will fit with these areas of holistic development.

ENVIRONMENT

The children will learn about their natural environment and the working theories surrounding it. They will begin to get an understanding for how our world works and how they can be involved in this. The will gain an appreciation for the natural world and an enthusiasm and interest to have an active part in preserving and looking after our world. They will gain knowledge about our world, how it works and where they fit into it. The children will be part of creating and maintaining an aesthetically pleasing environment where they can explore texture, taste, smell and sounds. From this they will be developing a respect for the living world.

CURRICULUM
This project will cover all the main areas of the curriculum; it will incorporate lots of different learning areas. Here is a brief overview of some value and learning that the children will get the opportunity to be involved in.

Science:

The children will be involved in the research process on how to make a garden, what properties and products are involved. We could research which plants and flower will grow best in what time of year and how to set them up best in our garden. The children will observe, talk about patterns and cycles, ask questions and predict further growth changes etc.
We could research different insects that will be attracted to our garden.
We will cover photosynthesis, composting and the cycle of waste, rot and putting everything back into the earth.

Math:

Counting, classifying, measuring, sequencing and sorting are just a few of the maths values that the children will experience through this project. The children will be able to count the seeds measure the distance between plants and so on.
We would use a calendar to mark and record the days and dates of when the seeds will turn to plants and so on.
We would have different types of graphs to document the measurements of the growths of our plants.

Outdoor Education:

The children will gain knowledge and skills about their living world outside! They will get to participate in an activity that is based outside in the fresh air and sunshine working hard to achieve success.
They will gain a sense of respect for the land and what it provides for us.
They will physically be involved with having to use tools to dig holes for the plants, take responsibility for watering them daily.
The children will get to be involved in the outside environment and design allowing them a sense of belonging in and respect for their environment.
Develop gross and fine motor skills.
Everything we endeavour to do will benefit the outdoors, bringing all this value and learning to the outdoors creating a natural and stimulating learning environment.

Music and Movement:

Learn songs, rhymes, and finger plays associated with keeping ourselves healthy, food preparation and physical activity.
We will sing to the plants as they grow.
Create a garden dance, swaying like trees and growing like plants.
We will be creating an outdoor garden with music outside (natural surrounding sounds) as we tend to our garden to support and encourage learning.

Literacy:

Make books and journals documenting our journey from start to finish.
Children may draw pictures of their plants growing and write stories about their experiences.
Make a recipe book with the “children’s voice” and drawings.
Make book with different ideas for healthy snacks.
The children will have lots of opportunities to talk about and describe what is happening in the garden as the plants grow and develop. This will build the children’s vocabulary and confidence in asking questions and finding answers.
We will read lots of stories to the children about gardening and growing plants.
We will create a link to healthy eating on our website.

COMMUNITY

We will visit the local Palmers Garden World to look at products and materials that we will need and work in conjunction with them to maintain our gardens for example, visits from their staff. We will visit other local shops and local gardens and farms to observe and explore other gardening in practice.
We will involve the local community by producing a recipe book which we would advertise to local schools, or the local shops.
We will send out flyers around the community explaining what we are doing and sharing our journey of learning as well as talking to the local newspaper to try and get our long term behaviour change recognised.
We will visit local gardens and nature walks such as ‘Battle Hill’, ‘Colonial Knob’ and ‘The Botanical Gardens.

PHILOSOPHY ETHOS & VISION

We believe in providing an environment and programme that focuses on a child’s holistic development. We believe it is important to be healthy in body, mind and spirit. We believe in working together with children and their families to provide a loving, homely, and inviting environment to service the aspirations of the wider community. Our policy is to provide children with opportunities so that they can grow into competent and confident learners and communicators healthy in body, mind and spirit, secure in their sense of belonging and in the knowledge that they make a valued contribution to society (From Te Whariki, New Zealand Early Childhood Curriculum). We believe developing skills and knowledge about keeping ourselves healthy is an underpinning value to a child’s well-being and we aim in working alongside “our little tamariki” to develop positive physical and emotional health.

EMPOWERING CHILDREN/ CO-CURRICULUM

We believe that through these experiences the children will achieve a sense of achievement and responsibility ultimately empowering them to want to do, see and learn more about healthy choices. The children are developing self responsibility and self help and care skills which enable them to gain a sense of themselves as confident and competent learners. Children become empowered by observing, becoming involved, making discoveries, taking responsibility and achieving success. Through our project the children will have the opportunity to choose a vegetable or fruit, prepare the garden, plant the seed, monitor its growth, feed and nurture it, and when the vegetable is right for the taking, retrieve it, prepare it for a healthy meal or snack, and enjoy! ...and of course start the process again!

ACTIVITY AND TIMEFRAME

We would give ourselves a good 6 months to get our vegetable, herb and fruit garden up and running and producing usable fruits and vegetables. As soon as this is effectively happening, we will be able to continue on with the rest of our project, making jams, soups, juices etc, as well as a recipe book.
Building our nutritious outside eating area would take about two months allowing time to plan and paint a murals wall with the children, build the appropriate structures, buy and apply the appropriate shade cloth for shading. We would also need an electrician to come and connect up the outside speakers.
Throughout the year we would endeavour to make our soups, jams, smoothies, juices, and meals using our produce ultimately making our cook book and maintaining our garden so that we can continue on this amazing journey of growth and behaviour change towards a healthier and positive ‘ME’.

WHAT ARE THE POTENTIAL BARRIERS TO ESTABLISING THIS INITIATE, OR MAKING IT A SUCCESS? HOW WILL THESE BE OVERCOME?

Barriers: The weather could affect the success of our fruit and vegetable growing:
Solution: We could keep our vegetable and fruit garden in a glass house or build a shelter of some type to protect itself from the elements.
Barriers: Knowledge and skills in starting and maintaining a garden.
Solutions: This will be overcome by involving our parents and the wider community by getting them to share their gardening skills and sharing the responsibility of caring for it. Children and teachers could also extensively research about how to successfully keep a vegetable and fruit garden.
Barriers: We have a mixed age group of three months to five years; one barrier could be that it may be difficult to monitor the little ones in the garden to stop them from pulling the garden etc.
Solutions: We will teach all the children the responsibilities of maintaining and caring for a garden. We will make sure teachers monitor the garden when children are exploring it.

HOW DO WE INTEND TO MONITOR OUR SUCCESS?

We will use questionnaires and surveys for parents and families to document and evaluate the success of our project. We will ask for regular feedback about how our project has affected the children’s interest in cooking and food preparation at home.
We will use a planning stories approach to learning and hold open discussions and conversations with the children. We will do brain storms under heading such as what we would like to know more about? And what we know now? We consider the children’s voice very important and as a strong and effective way of monitoring our success.
We will use learning stories and profile books to document the learning which can be shared with teachers, children and families.
We will have a suggestions box available for parents and encourage them to comment on our garden and its success.
Inventory List

(1)    Computer and Camera
(2)    Vegetable seeds. Garden spades, garden forks, gardening gloves, watering cans, stakes, potting mix, potting pots and plant cultivator boxes.
(3)    Fruit Plants.
(4)    Oven, Blender, Mixing bowls, Cups, Juicer, Soup bowls, measuring cups, peelers, knife set, chopping boards.
(5)    Jam jars
(6)    Book and Binder
(7)    Glass House
(8)    Garden shed
(9)    Shade cloth and large umbrellas, materials for eating area such as pebbles for ground, plants and a water feature.
(10)    Paint
(11)    Stereo and outdoor speakers
(12)    Tables and chairs to seat 37
(13)    Conventional oven