As part of our inquiry we have followed the children’s lead, and carried out some planting before the end of the school year. The children chose either beans or flower seeds to plant, and are excited to be witnessing the lifecycle of a plant, as they see roots, shoots and leaves begin to appear.

We had talked much about planting sunflowers, lavender, marigolds and basil to attract bees and butterflies to our gardens. As part of this we looked at Van Gogh and his famous paintings of sunflowers. We learned that Van Gogh felt they communicated ‘gratitude’.

The children then watched an interactive lesson on painting a vase of sunflowers, and created their very own sunflower painting.

“We must abandon our idea of a static, knowable educator and move on to a view of an educator in a state of constant change and becoming.
The role of the educator shifts from a communicator of knowledge to a listener, provocateur, documenter, and negotiator of meaning.”
Pacini-Ketchabaw et al., 2009, p. 103 (The Kindergarten Program, 2016)