The Oaks Federation

Edible Playground and outdoors

2023-24

Tymor yr Hydref

Autumn Term

Gwnaeth Blwyddyn 2 saws tomato i fynd gyda pasta, yn defnyddio tomatos a pherlysiau o'r ardd a nifer bach o gynhwysion eraill.

Year 1 harvested the potatoes they had sown in the spring. They washed them and helped prepare them, and then enjoyed delicious, crispy roast potatoes.

Reception Class picked Swiss chard and spinach beet to make crispy 'seaweed'. It tasted just like the shop-bought version!

Reception Class are learning the correct way to water the crops in the Edible Playground.

Nursery children looked at photos of lettuces and then identified them in the Edible Playground. They harvested them, washed them, and enjoyed them with a bit of salad cream! The cucumber and tomatoes are from our Edible Playground too.

Year 4 took part in a wildflower hunt in the area around the school playgrounds. They found a big range of species, including willowherb, ragwort, common yarrow, thistle, red clover, dandelion, groundsel, ribwort plantain and fox-and-cubs.

Year 4 watched a programme about how carrots are harvested, then went outside to harvest ours. They prepared and roasted them - they were delicious! They have also started some other carrot-based activities linked to art, numeracy and literacy.

Year 4 harvested our Edible Playground cucumbers and helped prepare them. Then they sampled them and described them - sour, crunchy, fresh, juicy, cold, refreshing.

Year 4 dug up some potatoes. They learned the importance of storing them in the dark, while we decide what to make with them!

Year 5 harvested our sweetcorn. They were a bit past their best, sadly, so we will learn from the experience and harvest them earlier next year.

Following the disappointment of the sweetcorn, Year 5 harvested, prepared and roasted our carrots, working with a high degree of independence. They were delicious, although Evie wanted hers honey-roasted!

Year 6 followed packet instructions and a new gardening tool to plant tulip and daffodil bulbs in our new cut-flower bed (a great idea from a Year 5 pupil).

Year 4 harvested our pumpkins, squashes and marrows. They will make a nice addition to our Harvest Assembly display this week.

Year 3 had a lot of autumn odd-jobs to do - clearing our mooli and pumpkins and composting everything, planting some spring bulbs, and planting garlic and shallots.

Year 4 made roast potato wedges using the potatoes they had dug up earlier this month. The whole school smelled like a chip shop!

Year 2 made pasta using the Edible Playground tomato sauce that they made and froze back in September, learning how we can preserve food in the process. It was delicious!

Symudodd Blwyddyn 1 berlysiau o'u potiau i'r daear a phlannodd fylbiau cennyn Pedr.

We harvested our garlic before the summer holidays and stored it in the potting shed. Reception class used some of it to make delicious garlic bread.

Nursery children helped make pear crumble using the last of the autumn fruit from our orchard. Yummy!

Year 3 did an autumn sowing of broad bean seeds. They are usually sown in the spring, so we will just have to see what happens!

Year 3 learned how beans develop nitrogen on their roots, and how we leave the nitrogen in the soil by cutting the stalks at ground level instead of pulling up the roots.

Plannodd Dosbarth Derbyn fylbiau gwanwyn yn eu potiau blodau.

Some Year 2 children picked medlars from the tree in our orchard. They have 'bletted' by now so are ready to eat. Some children - and staff! - were brave enough to try them! They taste much, much nicer than they look. They were very popular in the 15- and 1600s and can be made into a jelly.

Year 4 undertook the important task of clearing the beds and spreading a mulch of new compost ready for the spring.

Cynaeafodd, paratoiodd a choginiodd Blwyddyn 2 ein ffenygl. Roedd ymatebion i'r blas anarferol yn gymysg! Ond mae'n beth da i drio pethau newydd.

Tymor y Gwanwyn

Spring Term

Does dim lot yn tyfu ym mis Ionawr ond mae Blwyddyn 5 wedi bod yn hau hadau rhuddyglen. Maen nhw'n ddiogel o'r tywydd oer yn y sied potio nawr.

Year 6 planted shallot sets using a range of measuring and estimating skills, working independently.

Year 6 planted out Mr Evans's rooting Christmas tree. We'll see if it 'takes' - if so it will eventually provide some welcome shade and structure in an area of bare grass above the playground.

Some children in all classes from Reception to Year 6 made a display vase of foliage and plants currently found in our school grounds, for our Enrichment Afternoon activity. It helps us learn about the changing of the seasons and the seasonality of plants and their life cycles.

Nursery children sowed radish seeds into modules, using it as an opportunity to practise counting to ten and beyond.

It's been all hands on deck with strimming, rotavating, watering and sowing, to prepare our wildflower and pollinator bed. A big 'Diolch yn fawr' to everyone involved. Now we just need to wait and see if the yellow rattle 'takes' and succeeds in killing off some of the grass and so improve the biodiversity.

Year 1 sowed early cauliflower seeds into modules. They learned gardening vocabulary such as 'module', 'germination' (and 'dustpan-and-brush'!) and estimated 1cm depth for sowing.

Reception class sowed early cabbage seeds and did a gardening tool identification.

Year 5 learned how to use secateurs safely, learning how to handle managed risk. They then applied their skills to pruning our living willow into shape. The prunings were added to our bug hotel.

Year 5 sowed yellow rattle seed, using funds from a grant, plus help and advice from Sam at Forest Farm. Yellow rattle is known as 'the meadow maker' because it suppresses grass growth by feeding on its roots and so encourages biodiversity. We will sow further species in the spring.

Heuodd Blwyddyn 3 hadau cennyn, ar ôl darganfod rhain o'r llynedd yn yr ardd. Byddan nhw'n barod am Ddydd Gŵyl Ddewi 2025, gobeithio!

Year 2 sowed turnip seeds. They read the instructions on the packet themselves, established that we were in the correct month for sowing and estimated the correct planting depth.

Planiodd Blwyddyn 2 nionod coch. Defnyddion nhw bren mesur i fesuro'r pellter rhwng bob un.

Reception children harvested parsnips ready for Nursery children to help prepare the following day.

Reception children learned about the importance of chitting potatoes before planting them. These are maincrop potatoes so we will turn them into roast potatoes, crisps or mash later in the year.

Nursery children sowed celeriac seeds.

Year 3 put out maincrop potatoes for chitting. Once the shoots are longer and stronger they will plant them in the Edible Playground.

Year 3 children sowed kohlrabi seeds.

Year 6 children made celeriac slaw, working almost entirely independently to harvest and prepare the celeriac and then follow the recipe to make the slaw. It was delicious!

Year 1 sowed crimson-flowering broad beans. They used the measurements on the side of the dibber to check for the correct depth and space between each one.

Nursery children sowed carrot seeds into their raised bed. They learned how to handle the tiny seeds correctly.

Reception class chitted their maincrop potatoes recently and today they sowed them. Now all they need to do is water them, dig them up when they're ready, and decide what to make them into!

Tymor yr Haf

Summer Term

Year 5 sowed pea and mangetout seeds, showing growing levels of independence.

Year 6 planted gladiolus bulbs in our cut-flower bed. Dame Edna would be proud.

Year 6 planted out our chitted maincrop potatoes.

Year 6 experimented with growing onion sets. They planted some directly into the ground and planted some into cells indoors. The indoor ones are 'further along' than the outdoor-sown ones and were ready to plant out, so we might use that method more often in future.

Heuodd Blwyddyn 6 hadau tomato mewn celloedd, bron yn hollol annibynnol. Dyn ni ddim wedi tyfu'r amrywiaeth hon o'r blaen.

Year 6 undertook the important job of thinning out our turnip and lettuce seedlings, learning how to identify the weaker plants and how to remove them without damaging the others, and composting the thinnings.

Our cut-flower bed is starting to make progress.

Heuodd Dosbarth Derbyn hadau blodyn yr haul.

A very, very busy day in the Edible Playground for Year 3 - clearing beds, sorting tools, and sowing carrots, runner beans, red cabbages, tomatoes, courgettes, cucumbers, swedes, squashes and pumpkins!

Year 5 harvested tulips from our cut-flower bed and made a vase of them for our school foyer.

Year 5 sowed French beans.

Year 5 sowed lots of flowers for our cut-flower bed - zinnias, carnations, verbena, nigella, cosmos and sweet peas, to add to the sunflowers that Reception class sowed last week.

Year 2 planted liatris bulbs, taking care to plant them towards the back as they are fairly tall. They compared the heights of the different flowers to work out their best position.