Visit to year 1

Jill Nichols, Gwen Nabbs and myself had a delightful visit to Year 1 at Marden Primary Academy to chat about plants.

I had decanted seeds into little ramekin dishes and covered them with cling film so they could be seen and stuck the seed packet on the back.  The children were delighted to see the different sizes and shapes of seeds from beans to poppy seeds.  I also took in seed heads which even though I’d shaken still exploded in the class!  

I drew a little diagram of how a plant grows with roots, stem, leaves and flowers and had pulled up some plants so they could see the roots ‘in the flesh’..

Gwen talked about mint rooting in water and mint was passed round to smell.  She also had a ‘Mother of Thousands’ plant and seeds which she sowed in little pots for them to keep.

Jill had potted up lots of verbena bonariensis  in yoghurt pots and taken in one she cut that morning.  The children did not believe that it grew taller than us so let’s see how they tall grow.  A little chap said being purple it would attract butterflies.  They were a very bright bunch.  She also took in tomatoes plants which some children recognised and said their family grew, but the star was the ‘shoo fly plant’.  (Nicandra physalodes) I need to get one from Jill for my kitchen.

The children asked some really interesting questions about our gardens and what trees we grew and what was our favourite flower.  I mentioned the Garden Safari Marden in Bloom organised and said next time they should visit our gardens.

A little boy loved telling us about his Venus Fly Trap.  Not my favourite plant but I remember my dad growing one.  Fascinating.

We left feeling very happy that they were so interested and enthusiastic.  We, the children and teachers really enjoyed ourselves. MHS future members!

Zubeida Roberts, Hon. President, MHS