Where has Spring gone?

The Seasons have changed and we can sadly no longer be sure of lovely April weather. This week has produced sun,wind ,sleet and snow and has confined us to the classroom for more time than we wished. However,yesterday gave us a small reprieve and we spent most of the day outdoors.The children enjoyed transplanting the tomatoes into larger pots(spooning the compost into pots) They will need plenty of feeding and watering and the children are very happy with their new duties. I had hoped to put our beans in their permanent bed but the wind was too sharp which would have been hard on  our frail little plants and so we will wait for the wind to abate.We then went on a walk around the garden to see what plants had appeared. Everything is late but there has been a great outburst of growth despite the cold weather.We stooped at the herb bed and the children enjoyed smelling the different herbs. All listened eagerly as I told them that their Mums use  thyme and rosemary to make their spaghetti or a tasty stew  and we can use mint or fennel to make tea. The lavender can be placed on our pillows to give us sweet dreams or we can also use it in cookies!Lemon balm was rubbed on all the little hands as it had such a lovely smell and is used to make soaps.Herbs were stuffed into pockets for Mums to use at home!!A great “Montessori sensorial lesson” in the real environment!!

After the herb bed we arrived at our pear trees. The blossom is just out on one of them and  beginning to break open on the other pear tree. Again this gave me another opportunity to talk about pollination and how bees do the work for the plants(and we all know that plants cant walk so they need the insects to exchange their pollen!! )The wonderful thing is that the children will be able to see in the next few weeks how that blossom really does turn into a fruit!  I am always telling them about how we depend on insects for all our food  and how insects  and plants need each other so it was lovely to see the bees flying from blossom to blossom transferring pollen and getting a drink of nectar in return.We had just reached the blackberry bushes where the blossom has already turned into fruit when it was time to go home and so our garden walks and work will continue in the weeks to come …so much to see and learn right now with changes every day and so my job of planting the seeds of wonder in the brains of these little children is magic itself!