Making food
for the plants
By Eri Akbar
We celebrate all things green in this month when Earth Day
is commemorated on the 22nd April.
Making a fruit salad presents a great opportunity for young
children to get in touch with nature through their senses.
During the process, there might be banana skin and orange
peels castaside. Instead of tossing them all in the bin, turn
them into ingredients for a composting experiment. Tell the
children it's for making food for the plants!
Simply stuff the skins in transparent bottles and layer with some soil. It will be
interesting for children to see which ones will decompose first. It will take more
than a week for the skins to break down and show signs of decay, so create a
space for display and encourage children to revisit everyday and talk about their
observations.
Finally, at the end of the project, guide the children to bury the compost in the
ground. It may smell yucky but it's all part of the experience!
A good book to support learning would be Compost Stew by Mary McKenna
Siddals. Learning that living things decay over time is part of Understanding of
the World in the EYFS.