WELCOME TO THIS FORT-NIGHTS OUTDOOR PLAY LINK-UP.
A few weeks ago, we spent some time setting up our worm farm. As part of our preschool’s ‘Sustainability Strategy’ we decided that we would like to establish a worm farm to help promote an ecological understanding of the interconnectedness of life on earth. The children thought that feeding ‘worm brew’ (worm urine) to the plants in our vegetable garden was hugely amusing. Interesting how bodily functions are often cause for hysterical laughter amongst young children!
We first unwrapped the worm farm ‘bedding block’ which will provide food for our worms for their first few weeks.
The bedding block needed to be soaked in water to soften and break up the fibres.
The children decided to move the process along a bit by helping to manually break it down with some sticks.
And then with their hands.
The bedding mix was placed into the worm farm to form the base layer.
Time to add a ‘starter box’ of 1,000 worms!
In they go…
…and on goes the worm blanket!
Now to wait!
So then of course, we were back to the Vegetable Garden for some more planting. Time to add some tomato and strawberry plants.
And some worm brew to water our new plants in and give them a good kick-start to grow.
While we were watering in the new plants, we noticed many cabbage leaf butterflies hovering over our garden. With a little detective work, we discovered some holes in the leaves of our plants and some very well camouflaged caterpillars!
We love our Vegetable Garden, it has been such a great adventure for our children this year.
Munching on snow peas and sweet peas straight from the garden has been such a lot of fun! 🙂
You can follow our Vegetable Garden journey by clicking through Here!
My favorite post from last FORT-NIGHTS link-up was:
Sticks (the original wooden toy) from ‘Fireflies and Mudpies’.
Click on the photo below to read about a fun adventure with sticks!
How did your kids play outdoors this week?
Any kind of children’s outdoor play-related posts are welcome!
We’d appreciate it if you included a link back to this post (either in your post or sidebar) to help us spread the word about the importance (and fun!) of outdoor play! In return, we’ll gladly further share your post on Facebook/ Twitter/ Pinterest. Please feel free to grab the Outdoor Play Party button from the sidebar and/or include a text link back.
Please note that by contributing you are giving permission for an image and link to your post to be republished if featured. (If you have been featured, please feel free to grab the ‘featured’ button from the sidebar.) Share your ideas for outdoor play activities with us every other week!
Your vegetable garden has certainly bloomed over the year, it’s looking great. Who will look after it over your summer break? Kierna
Well Kierna, we have 5 staff members and 5 weeks holiday, so we will all have one week each of caring for the vegetable garden, worm farm and our Oscar fish. 🙂
Hi there! I love reading your blog, so I’ve nominated you for the Liebster Award.
http://grok78.wordpress.com/2012/11/13/a-gold-star-well-kind-of/
Recently, our two-year old saw an earthworm on the walkway and was fascinated. (He pronounces them “wums.”) He squatted over it and studied it until it was back in the grass. So, I led him to the loose bricks along the front garden and turned them over one at a time. Many hid earthworms, which we would watch until they wiggled back into the ground. Now, almost every time he’s in the front yard, the first thing he wants to go over and look for “wums.”
Gwynn
What a lovely story, thank you for sharing Gwynn. 🙂