A Froebelian approach to creating a vegetable patch based on child’s interest at a Early Years Setti
Associated Course:
Project summary:
The overall aim of this project is to promote and develop the outdoor areas of the nursery through introduction of new opportunities for the clients that attend the setting. For this project we will concentrate on developing the vegetable patch for the outdoor area.
Introduction
For this project I will firstly explore the rationale behind why children should be involved in their environment and the importance that food takes within the child’s life. In order to ascertain what the children would like to implement consultation with all the stakeholders the setting is proposing to improve the grounds by introducing a vegetable patch. This will allow the children to explore new items of food and allow them the opportunity to learn to grow and look after objects. This will allow the children to take responsibility and manage an area that they are interested in.
In order for the children to take ownership of the project and other stakeholders in the setting we needed to gather their views on what they would like.
When we were observing the children we could see that they were interested in vegetables and interested in growing vegetables. The children were using vegetables during their play in the nature kitchen and were making comments such as “when i am home mum and me make soup using these vegetables”, “I like carrots but what are these, they feel different”.
A small group of them went to visit a garden that was being recreated by veterans. They gave the children tips on how to look after the vegetables, what vegetables work best in different places and what vegetables they could grow.
Findings
The aim of this project was to introduce a vegetable into the outdoor environment. The children took the lead in this project and decided what they would like to do and how to do it. The children were interested in the vegetable patch and took ownership for the project. During the project the practitioner that was leading and giving the children the enthusiasm went on annual leave and other practitioners did not continue that enthusiasm which means the children lost interest. When we got a new chef at the centre who wanted to use the vegetables in his cooking the children gained interest again.
Conclusion
- From this the children in the setting gained a rich learning experience through creating this designated area.
- This project was a start and there is still some way to go to ensure the project continues and is sustainable within the etting. From this project you can see that the children have developed and this has been noted in their observations and through parents on our social media posts.
Research implications
To be completed
Practitioner enquiry
To be completed
Leadership learning
To be completed
Author and role
To be completed
Comments from other network members
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