Gardeners can save the Earth

Thursday (23/04/2009)

a) We are gardeners.
The kids pretended to be gardeners. I pretended to be a person with no gardening experience.
Recalling back our yesterday’s planting vegetable planting, I asked them why some of my plants bended?
Jien Wei: Not enough water. Ze Yan: Not enough sunlight.
Sharlene: Not enough enzyme. Teacher: I think we have everything.
Eugene: Not enough soil. Teacher: Good! The soil in our pots was too little.
Sufficient soil is important to hold the vegetable and fruit when they are growing big.

b) New labels.
Shu Wei: what is a label?
Teacher: A label is to write important information such as your name, vegetable name and also the
date we first planted the vegetables and fruit.
Our little lable has already faded. So, its very important to have new labels!
Discussion: A gift for Qian Thong’s parents.
We were lucky that Qian Thong’s parents presented us the pots and soil for free. We must give them in return.
Jen Ning: We can write them a letter thanking their kindess.
Wen Yue: We can draw pictures.
Yun Zhe: Just like our gift to Mr. Hoo who came and teach us Dragon Dance.
Teacher: What can we draw? Foo Soon: We drew dragons for Mr. Hoo.
Sharlene: We can draw plants and beautiful flowers for them.
Wen Yue: Can we draw sharks?
Teacher: Of course! Anything that trees can save…! Just like…..the Earth Day!
Yun Zhe: We can also give Qian Thong’s parents some of our vegetable and watermelon.
Teacher: Hmm….we have to work very hard, then! Good idea!

c) Gardening.
Thus, we pasted our labels. We topped up the soil. We watered them as well as spraying the emzyme.
Ze Yan: We have taken more than 2 weeks to plant our vegetables.
Jin Shan: But….some grew….some didn’t.
Teacher: So, it is easy to be a farmer? Class: No!!
Teacher: Appreciate your food, okay. Those plants which didn’t grow, we would pray hard and work hard that the seeds are of good quality this time.
We transferred the pots near to the fence beside the garden.

d) Recording.
They enjoyed planting and of course they enjoyed drawing their thoughts.
Each kid drew pictures on “Earth Day”.
Some drew themselves planting vegetables. Some drew how dolphins could be saved when the ocean is cleaner or when the water is not too hot due to global warming.
Some drew sharks. Some came to ask me to write short sentences of their thoughts on the whiteboard. Then they wrote them down onto their paper.
I thought to myself, “If only these kids could colour as well as they draw!” maybe its time they do that in next lesson….after all “my body is magic”!