Apples

 Autumn has moved in to our orchard.

Last Friday our orchard played host to two special visitors, Mary and Chris, who came to scythe the grasses and wild flowers.

So, this is how you scythe...

 Luckily the rain had stayed away and the area was dry and ready to be cut.  They started at 8.30 am and by 9.15 were well in the swing of it all.  By then there were also large swathes of grass which needed lifting and stacking - and this is where Y6 came in.  For the whole day the Y6 children came down in turns to rake, lift and stack the grass into a huge haystack. 

We've made a haystack...hooray!

This proved to be lots of fun, especially when the grass in the haystack needed trampling on to press it down and make it stable.

Mary had also brought along a child sized scythe, and everyone had a go.  It was much more difficult than it looked and the girls proved more adept at it than the boys, who generally thought it was going to be easy and then gave up after a couple of swings!  Harlie (6M) and Emily (6N) proved to be expert mowers and quickly cut their way through a large area.

Harlie in full swing - nearly

Jolene in full swing - definitely!

Lots of wildlife was seen, with a grasshopper and a wasp spider caught for a short time and studied.  A frog was seen hopping away into the long grass left for wildlife cover, and many butterflies were out collecting nectar including the Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria).

By 4.30 the orchard was looking clear and tidy ready for a really good raking before more wildflower seed goes down. 

Teachers can scythe too you know

Raking and preparing the meadow for seeding

Now that's a great day at school

A plant family

Plant families is not an easy subject to teach children especially when more children are becoming less familiar with the natural world around them. They do not see so much flora and can most definitely not always name it...

'Alliums' are a fantastic resource for teaching the concept of a plant family. There is much excitement involved with planting a seed or a bulb and watching it grow into an edible or ornamental plant.


There are many child friendly alliums visible in the summer months most notably chives, spring onions, onions (red and white) shallots and garlic - and let's not forget wild garlic which have planted at Wicor.  The flowers can be prolific and demonstrate seed dispersal on an awesome scale particularly when allowing elephant garlic to run to seed.

Alliums allow a children to experience touch, taste, smell and can be quick to grow.  Harvesting can be rewarding and at Wicor there is nothing better for the children than to dig up an edible bulb in the allotment.

Tell me again about this Dracula guy...

 

Yum

A favourite recipe to make is garlic bread and each stage is completed by the children; the simplicity of mixing butter, crushing garlic, snipping home grown parsley and spreading spoonfuls into sliced crusty baguettes. I think the enjoyable part of the lesson for the children is the eating and inevitably someone always seems to raise the subject of vampires!

Louise Bryant

Rich Pickings

Wow, that's a lot of blackcurrants

Last term our grounds held an abundance of flavour, scent and were most certainly a feast for the eyes.

Our Year 2 pupils were delighted to explore the edge of our allotment and find blackcurrants bursting on branches. Only seven weeks ago we had plenty of sunshine and our bumper crop bumper weighed in at over 3 pounds.

 

The heady mix

                                                                             At Wicor, children provide ideas on what to make and with the summer fair taking place cordial won the day. Weighing fruit, sugar and measuring water was taken very seriously and the mixture was sent to the kitchen for a good boil and returned when cool. The children enjoyed squishing the mixture through the sieve, releasing yet more colour and an intoxicating, sugary smell.




Recycled jars and straws showed off the cordial well for the visitors to the school fair. Children sold the cordial to parents, grandparents and our local community for 20p a cup - all advertised by hand painted signs. Comments were extremely positive from all and our cordial was a complete sell out!

Louise Bryant