Beginnings

Welcome to an elementary science blog -based at the American School in London

 As this is the beginning of this blog is seems appropriate to start with the foundation.  In our school that is the K1 class.   It would be called Preschool in many other American schools.  The children are just starting school and are 4-5 yrs old.  The teachers in the K1 team decided that in addition to their regular project work and science units they would like to expand our gardening unit to have a gardening focus through the whole year.   As school starts in the fall this got me thinking about how to align the garden science lessons with the natural cycles of the seasons.  Rather than start with sprouting seeds (something that would make more sense to do later in the year - to start in the winter),  I have decided to start the year with some lessons related to other forms of plant growth.  So,  we will be growing some common plants from cuttings to add more green growing life to the classrooms.  In addition, we will be harvesting some plants and investigating what is inside them.  (Spoiler Alert! - Seeds!)  So, in late July I started sprouting pumpkins and squash seeds to be planted in raised beds in our courtyard.   Hopefully, they will grow large enough for us to harvest by late October.   We will see!

Charmant Pumpkin seeding

10 days after planting