Gardening Club #19

It has been eighteen months since the last gardening club took place. The Halloween Special in October 2019 was to be the last session before a bit of a Winter rest. Sadly, by the time we were ready to crack on with the new season, COVID-19 had gripped the world and its been stop start ever since.

Thankfully, there seems to be light at the end of the poly tunnel and with the warmer weather comes a feeling of optimism. The Easter holidays has marked the start of a new season on the allotment and this year, two teachers from the school have offered to run the after school sessions alongside Friday afternoon forest school up there too.

Jobs for this week included some light weeding of the raised beds…

….planting off cuttings from mint.

…working together to set out rows…

…and potato planting.

Pond dipping is an activity that children never seem to get tired of! Great to see so much life in the school pond that includes frogs, newts, tadpoles, dragonfly nymphs, pond skaters etc.

Art Workshop

Show The Love is an annual celebration of all that we love but could lose to climate change. Together we can protect the people, places, and life we love by speaking as one and encouraging our leaders to take action on climate change. Last week Oakridge School took part in this celebration. The children enjoyed a week packed full of fun activities, two of which took place on the allotment.

Last Thursday the children enjoyed a master composting workshop led by Bisley Community Composing. Click here to read the blog. On Friday, they were back at the allotment for an art workshop led by local children’s art group, Art Sparks.

The morning started off brightly enough, but with rain forecast, everyone got straight on with the activities planned. The children from class 2 were given paper and charcoal and asked to draw runner bean frames, sprout stalks and leek leaves from the perspective of ants! It was delightful to watch.

They positioned themselves in small groups on the ground and with charcoal sticks in their hands they were encouraged to make large scale drawings that used all the paper. Some were a little hesitant at first, but as they relaxed so their mark making skills began to flow.

The activity was clearly having the right effect on the children. Giggles, laughs and smiles filled the paper almost as much as their charcoal marks! Some were laughing at the sound the charcoal stick made on the paper, (a rather scratchy, ear piercing sound) while others seemed to be smiling simply because they were doing something creative, outside in the fresh air.

The rain did eventually start to fall, but in true Oakridge spirit, it didn’t deter the children! They simply pulled their coats over their heads and carried on.

Meanwhile, class 1 were trying their hand at making plaster casts. They gathered around the table to listen to what they were being asked to do.

After taking a short walk around the allotment to see what objects they could find to press into the clay, they rolled their sleeves up and began.

They really enjoyed rolling out the clay into flat square slabs. It took two of them just to get the rolling pin to work effectively though, so hard was the clay!

Life on the allotment is always a joyful one. There is never an activity that the children do that doesn’t result in tremendous smiles and lots of laughs!

The children found a lovely array of different objects to press into their clay, some grown on the allotment…

…and others that had been brought in by the lovely ladies from Art Sparks.

There were shoe boxes brimming with interesting organic objects, from shells to petals to pine cones, it all left a lasting impression on the children.

Just one example that the children made.

Once finished, they fitted cardboard around the edge of the clay in readiness to cast.

The ladies from Art Sparks showed the children how to mix the plaster…

…before pouring it into the moulds.

Class 2 meanwhile had begun to make wire and wool dragon flies. It was another task that they all delighted in taking part in. By this time, the heavens had opened so everyone was snuggled under the safety of the shelter. The children chose colourful beads for the body, head and eyes, then chose colourful wool to build up the body.

The finished products were beautiful works of art that were as colourful and as individual as the characters who made them.

Morning break came around fast, and so the children were let loose on the play equipment in the adjacent playing field. Oakridge really is very fortunate to have such a great space only a few minutes walk from the school.

After break there came more clay work . Class 1 enjoyed a free flow session where they were encouraged to build whatever ideas came into their heads. Some built pots…

…others built various animals…

…all of them had a lovely time. It’s how learning should be.

Class 2 also had a go at working with clay. They were given small pots, (similar to hairspray caps) and asked to line them with clingfilm followed by a thin lining of clay.

They were then asked to find a suitable object to press into the clay. Some of the choices the children made weren’t overly sensible, such as this squash, which was quite clearly too big!

Other ideas were better suited!

It was great to see the children getting stuck in and helping each other. Many hands make light work.

Some of the impressions the children made worked really well, such as the head of a teasel.

Once all the pots were ready, the ladies from Art Sparks showed the children how to mix the plaster and gently poured it in.

Everyone came away from the session feeling an incredible sense of satisfaction, (not to mention a little bit damp!) It was a wonderful workshop. Being outside, drawing, making, creating. It was outdoor learning at its best.

Composting Workshop

Show The Love is an annual celebration of all that we love but could lose to climate change. Together we can protect the people, places, and life we love by speaking as one and encouraging our leaders to take action on climate change. Last week Oakridge School took part in this celebration. The children enjoyed a week packed full of fun activities, two of which took place on the allotment.

The composting workshop was led by Lesley Greene, a Master Composter and founder of Bisley Community Composters. The children learned all about the creatures that live in a compost heap, the importance of composting and how they can compost more at school.

The children were broken down into three groups and each had a turn at one of the different activities. The first group got the chance to learn about the basic structure of a compost. They studied a food chain tower, which helped them to understand the different layers of a compost and what organisms and mini bests live where.

This led onto a hands on activity where the children got to rummage through some compost to see what they could find!

It was a lovely journey of discovery as teachers and children delved in and got their hands dirty.

With the use of name cards, the children were helped to identify the different creatures they found.

It was delightful to see such fascination on their faces.

From woodlice to worms to millipedes, the children found the activity very exciting. Lesley’s enthusiasm was infectious and by the end of the session everyone was feeling a lot of love for good composting!

The second activity involved teaching the children about how to improve their own school compost on the allotment. Bags of green waste, cardboard, kitchen vegetable waste and chicken and animal bedding were brought up to the plot prior to the start of the workshop. After a demonstration by Lesley about the correct way to build up the layers, the children made a start on it themselves.

Cardboard was used to line the sides, acting as a thermal wall to help keep the heat in…

…animal bedding was added to help balance all the green waste…

…and layers of cardboard were also placed between the layers to help with the decomposition process. The children had a lot of fun breaking up the cardboard!

The third activity was aimed at helping the children to understand what can and can’t go on a compost. It was a much more theoretical based exercise.

As the children gathered around the table, they all got involved with helping each other work out which food waste went where.

The composting session lasted all morning. It was really lovely to see all the children engaged in what was being asked of them, working so well together and showing great enthusiasm.