A Garden Adventure

By Agnes Ciarkowska & Jackie Ehrlich, Educators, Rabbi Joseph Weinberg Early Childhood Center (RJW ECC)

Nature provides many lifelong benefits supporting physical, cognitive and social-emotional development. Since the start of the school year, the River class has been enjoying nature walks around the neighborhood, especially the ones to the nearby creek. We have been noticing different flowers and plants on the way. Children collected leaves, pinecones, rocks, and other treasures and used them, together with real and pretend plants to build very elaborate gardens and small worlds in the classroom. Our class showed a lot of interest in creating, planting and taking care of a garden.

We started small to see how invested they would be in this project. They wrote a request to the building administrator for a little space and each child got a pot, soil, and a couple of plants. We’ve been visiting the garden almost daily. The children enjoyed watering it, planting different seeds they brought from home or retrieved from fruits or vegetables they ate at school, and watching them sprout. The process allowed the children to witness cause and effect in action. They were very successful in growing squash and grass.

In one of the books we read about autumn, the class noticed a scarecrow and decided their gardens also needed one. Each child designed and made a scarecrow with different materials. They added decorations and signs, and raked the leaves so the garden could stay clean. Physically, working in the garden helps them develop fine and gross motor control as they use both large and small muscles. Emotionally, gardening reduces stress while cognitively improving attention and memory.

Spending time in the garden lets them experience the beauty of the changing seasons with a unique set of sensory experiences. We touched the leaves on the ground. “The leaves feel soft,” said one child, and “wet,” added another. “They look like a rainbow,” commented a third child looking at the leaves full of enhanced colors thanks to the morning sun. We gave the children mirrors to look at the landscape from another angle, a different perspective. Some noticed they could see a reflection of the branches and leaves above and started placing leaves on their mirrors. One child suggested balancing the mirrors on their heads and we took a picture of it. When we looked at that picture later, they stated, “It looks like a tree is falling on us.” We took easels outside to capture the beauty in paint.

The children were disappointed to see how the cold weather had damaged the plants in their garden. Leaves became droopy and wilted. One of the girls was worried that the scarecrows were probably freezing – just like they were – and put her own hat on her scarecrow’s head and other children followed. Gardening gave the whole class opportunities for new vocabulary, ecological concepts, and math skills (counting and probability) while fostering their curiosity, creativity, and a deep connection to nature. We cannot wait for spring!

Registration for the 2025-26 school year opens in January! Visit whctemple.org/ecc for details.

---