Sow & Grow
Apr 13th, 2016 by Admin
We are delighted to have come runners up in the Sow and Grow competition this year! We will receive €300 of gardening equipment/plants and a visit from one of the GIY team to advise on spending the money wisely to help our school on it’s way to becoming even greener! We look forward to a visit from the GIY team next year. Well done to pupils and staff, we thoroughly enjoyed the competition. Take a look at our growing diary below to see what we got up to.
We are taking part in a competition called Sow & Grow. The competition is sponsored by Innocent Ireland and is operated in association with GIY Ireland. The project encourages children to grow their own vegetables to help them better understand where their food comes from.
By growing it themselves, children are much more likely to eat (and enjoy eating) fruit & vegetables and continue with healthy eating habits for the rest of their lives. And, while they do it, they’ll be having bit of fun messing about and getting their hands grubby while breathing in a few lungfuls of fresh air.
Read our growing diary below or click on the link to see it on the Sow & Grow website
Getting Started – BNS
Posted on Monday 11th April 2016 by Mrs Geraldine Sheehan
Just received our wonderful sow and grow pack in the post. All pots have been labelled with each child’s name. The children had lots of fun filling their pots with compost and sowing their seeds. The pots were divided out between our thirteen children and each planted cress, peas and spinach. The cress was placed on the window in direct sunlight while the peas and spinach were put in our indoor greenhouse. A fantastic starter pack so looking forward to seeing the results. Excitement all round. Will keep you posted!
A little bit of Cress!!
Posted on Tuesday 12th April 2016 by Mrs Geraldine Sheehan
Huge excitement this morning after the weekend. Day 4 and look at our cress sprouting out of the pots. The children are thrilled to see such quick results. We were told one Mammy loves eating cress so she may be getting a special home delivery one of these days!
Our Growing Chart
Posted on Wednesday 13th April 2016 by Mrs Geraldine Sheehan
Plenty of sun the last few days has seen our cress shoot up. The growing chart has turned into a competition to see who can grow their cress the highest. The rulers are out first thing each morning. The children are enjoying recording their results on the growing chart. The eyes are peeled and every centimeter counts at this stage. Great fun!
Sunshine Magic
Posted on Thursday 14th April 2016 by Mrs Geraldine Sheehan
We made the most of a little bit of sunshine today by putting our greenhouse outside. It made a big difference to our plants as we have a lot of shoots sprouting up. Our lazy peas and spinach have decided to sleep for another bit! Our cress is coming along nicely too. Nearly at the edible stage….. photos to follow so watch this spot, should be interesting.
BNS – Peas Please!
Posted on Friday 15th April 2016 by Mrs Geraldine Sheehan
Well hallelujah peas at last. Day 7 and our peas have decided to make an appearance. Two boys were asked what they thought of their peas so far and the responses were:
Jason: “I think they are sleepy peas and quite slow to grow”
Diarmuid: “I think they are growing at normal speed and are going to get really tall”
Looking forward to seeing how they all grow over the weekend……..
Cress Heads in BNS
Posted on Monday 18th April 2016 by Mrs Geraldine Sheehan
The childrens Cress is nearly ready to make the long awaited trip home. Time for a nice picture before the tasting session tomorrow. I hope those smiles don’t turn into frowns when the cress hits the taste buds… Check in tomorrow.
BNS – Testing the Taste Buds
Posted on Monday 18th April 2016 by Mrs Geraldine Sheehan
The day finally arrived when the taste buds would be tested! Before all the fun began it was time for one last measuring to be done. There was a lot of competition but the overall best height of a whopping 12cm went to Zoe. Well done Zoe and as you can see from her smile she was delighted.
Aistear – Using Our Senses
Posted on Wednesday 20th April 2016 by Mrs Geraldine Sheehan
We recently started Aistear in our school. It is wonderful to watch children learn from each other through play. We incorporated Sow & Grow into our theme for this week and named it “Using your senses with Sow & Grow”. We have thirteen pupils in all so it is easy to accommodate each station which is a bonus. Our four stations consisted of the following:
Art Station: The children did printing with the veg that they cut and also they made bookmarks. It was a very enjoyable session but the four little ones did require help with cutting etc.
Fun Friday in BNS
Posted on Monday 25th April 2016 by Mrs Geraldine Sheehan
Friday was art day and the children did a Printing session with the cut up vegetables they prepared during the week. The result was a beautiful, bright, imaginative display of art in the hallway of our school. We moved our peas and spinach from the greenhouse to the windowsill. They seem to be progressing better since the move. The final check of our peas and spinach for the weekend was done by two boys from 3rd & 4th class. A little bit of water and a touch of sun will hopefully see a spurt of growth this weekend.
Dehydration Averted!!!
Posted on Sunday 8th May 2016 By Mrs. Geraldine Sheehan
The children have been on holidays all week and of course nobody thought about our wee little peas and spinach and how they could possible survive a drought. Geraldine to the rescue and crisis averted! Holidays or no holidays these little fellas needed looking after so watering they got and oh how they have grown. The children will be so excited to see them tomorrow and no doubt the rulers will be out again to measure. Happy Days 🙂
Our Wormery – BNS
Posted on Monday 9th May 2016 By Geraldine Sheehan
As part of our Sow & Grow we decided to investigate soil and the importance of worms. Worms contribute greatly to the well being of our planet. They help make soil fertile, helping plants grow strong and healthy, which in turn supports wildlife. By tunnelling they allow air and water into the soil which is essential to decompose dead plants.
We learned a lot of facts about worms and here are some of the most interesting:
Earthworms have no lungs but they do need oxygen which is absorbed through tiny pores in their skin.
An earthworm cannot see, hear or smell. It is extremely sensitive to vibrations which alerts them to danger.
Worms are eaten by hedgehogs, badgers, shrews, moles, frogs, toads and birds.
Worms live in homes underground called burrows.
There are over 3,000 different kinds of earthworms.
Most earthworms in Ireland measure (10-20 cms in length) Australia have giant species that can grow to over 3 metres in length!
Under a football pitch there may be as many as 5 million worms!
Earthworms make tunnels in the ground by eating the soil as they go and can often go as deep as 2 metres.
Worms can live for two years
Earthworms eat dead plants found in the ground
No, a worm cannot live if cut in two. It may live if it loses a small part of its body, but will die if cut in half.
Many birds rely on worms in spring to feed their young. After learning all about the important facts about worms we gathered all the bits we needed to set up our wormery. We used a glass box, water, sand, compost and some tunnelling materials. The children each got a turn in layering the sand and compost. Then the fun bit, a trip to the field to collect the worms and small leaves! The worms had decided to play hide and seek as we found it very difficult to locate them. Eventually the children had to start digging. The race was on to find the biggest worm. Back in class the children placed the worms in their new home and some leaves on top. We have our wormery in a shady place in the room and they are adapting well to their new home. We watch each day as they tunnel around inside the box which is very interesting. We will release them into the field again in a months time as recommended.
Farewell Spinach!
Posted on Wednesday 11th May 2016 by Mrs Geraldine Sheehan
Sad developments today as we eventually had to say goodbye to one of our spinach pots. We held out in hope for as long as we could. Sadly it decided not to grow. Upon further investigation it was decided that maybe it had gotten too much water in the early stages. As you will see from the photos we have one very happy spinach face and one extremely sad spinach face……..
We are Famous!!
Posted on Friday 13th May 2016 by Mrs Geraldine Sheehan
We made it to this weeks edition of our local newspaper “The Avondhu”. They have taken interest in our Sow & Grow project. Great publicity for our small school so thank you Sow & Grow.
Goodbye Peas and Spinach!
Posted on Thursday 19th May 2016 by Mrs Geraldine Sheehan
Time to say goodbye to our well looked after peas and spinach. Our windowsill was turning into a bit of a forest! All the peas were secured with skewers for the long journey home. The children are going to transplant them to their gardens and keep us updated as to their progress.
