Learners of P1 had an opportunity to visit Garware farm and Pallod farm to explore the flora and fauna and to learn about the interrelationship between the plants and animals as a part of our Unit – Sharing the planet
Field trips help in experiential learning as children build on what they already know and are provided with opportunities to make connections between new concepts and existing ones. Sniffing, squeezing, and touching, the children drew on their senses to observe, explore and experience the wonders of nature. Children got this wonderful chance to apply their knowledge beyond the classroom.
Visit to Garware Farms:
The curious inquirers eagerly set off for their first field trip of the year. They were so excited and ready to explore the amazing day. Our generous hostess, Mrs. Mayuri Garware was there to welcome us and led our expedition around the vast farmland. She enthusiastically shared her knowledge about the plants and explained about all actions they were taking on the farm to make our earth sustainable.
Their farm manager, Mr. Sardesai is an expert and has all the knowledge about different kinds of plants and farming. The children observed the technique of picking coconuts from a tall coconut tree and saw the simple machine used to extract sugar cane juice. We all enjoyed the fresh, sweet and refreshing sugarcane juice and tender coconut water!
Observing different vegetables growing at the farm was a rich learning experience. Having learned about the categories of plants, our learners were quick to identify the different types of plants: trees, herbs, shrubs, creepers, and climbers. It was exciting for the little ones to see some vegetables grow above the earth and some of them under the ground. The children saw plants like cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, lemon, brinjal, bitter gourd, cherry tomatoes, onions, turmeric, sugarcane, rice, sweet potato, custard apple, sweet lime, star fruit, coffee, rose, marigold, banana, papaya, etc. The abundance of vegetation provided our children with an excellent opportunity to make connections between what they were seeing and experiencing and what they had learned in class by taking agency of their learning.
The children were extremely excited to see a wide variety of animals such as chickens, hens, goats, cows and were overwhelmed to see the kid and calf. The children also enjoyed playing on the slides, swing and had an exhilarating time jumping on the trampoline.
The visit was a nature walk clubbed with scrumptious snacks provided by Ms. Mayuri with a lot of love. The teachers and learners headed back to the school with joyful memories to treasure forever.
Here are some candid connections and reflections from our enthusiastic learners after the field trip:
“Chicken is important because they give us eggs and snails can eat the eggshells.” – Siwoo
“The neem tree gives us medicine, keeps the mosquitoes away and if we stand below the neem tree, we feel cool!”- Ruhi
“Cow poop and goat poop is important because it helps the plants to grow.” – Suhaana
“Lemon smells like orange because they belong to the same family.” – Yuma
“Banana plant is so big but is a herb because it does not have a woody stem.” – Dooyun
Visit to Pallod Farms:
Learners made many insightful connections as this was their second field trip to the farm.
Mr. Hector enthusiastically took us around the farm and shared his knowledge about the plants on his farm. This farm visit helped us to wrap up our second unit which focuses on the importance of plants and was a good provocation for our next unit which focuses on food processing and responsible consumption. Learners had the refreshing rosella tea loaded with antioxidants, which was prepared by boiling rosella petals with water.
We got an excellent opportunity to see some plants such as touch me not, spider plant, snake plant, lemongrass, rice, millet, avocado, different varieties of guava plant and banana plant, cherry tomatoes, brinjal, turmeric, air potatoes, beans, lemon balm, peppermint, sugarcane and many more.
Here are some candid connections and reflections from our enthusiastic learners after the field trip:
“Touch me not plant shows movement by closing their leaves. They are protecting themselves by closing the leaves”- Yuma
“Leaves have different colors like red, pink, purple, or yellow” – Ruhi
“Guava fruit comes in different varieties like – pink, black, white, some bananas are red in colour”- Ishaan
“Some plants like spider plant and snake plant give us oxygen” – Noor, Sofie
Special Thanks to Ms. Mayuri Garware, Mr. Hector Andrade, Ms. Jitika, Ms. Mari and Ms. Patricia for our two successful field trips loaded with first-hand experience, knowledge and fun!
Ms. Shilpa and Ms. Sonia
Team P1
