Episode 26: A Conversation About Exploring the Earth and Gardening Outdoors

In this episode, “A Conversation About Exploring the Earth and Gardening Outdoors”, you will hear ASCY’s Nicole Colterman have a conversation with Lynn Sheridan and Susie Dyck from Calvary Daycare in Simcoe who discuss the outdoors, gardening and the transformation of their outdoor environments through their earth exploration project. 

The conversations in today’s podcast are a part of a series of conversations we're having with educators on the outdoors, so be sure to listen to Episode 25: "A Conversation About Being in Relationship with the Outdoors"  and upcoming episodes when we chat with other educators about their outdoor spaces. 

Transcript

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Hello from Hamilton, Ontario. And welcome to ask these podcast show. Can we talk. Conversations in early childhood education. In today's episode a conversation about exploring the earth and gardening outdoors. You'll hear ask Nicole, Colterman have a conversation with Lynn Sheridan and Susie Dyke from Calvary daycare in Simcoe who discussed the outdoors gardening and the transformation of their outdoor environments through their earth exploration project. The conversations and today's podcast are a part of a series of conversations we're having with educators on the outdoors. So be sure to listen to episode 25 and upcoming episodes, when we chat with other educators about their outdoor spaces, we hope you enjoy listening today. hello, everybody. I am so excited to be here today. I'm Nicole Colterman, a professional learning consultant with ASCII Haldeman Norfolk, and today I have with me Lynn Sheridan, who is the pastoral daycare director at Calvary Daycare in Simcoe, and Susie Dyke, who is a registered early childhood educator and the horticulturist that we will be talking to today about their earth exploration project. So welcome. Thank you. Hi. So I just want to get a little bit of a feel for everybody listening with us today about what is your earth exploration project. And like, what was your inspiration to start it? So we've been on a bit of a journey with as in the last few years just growing in our, knowledge and ability to support children in, in outdoor play. I think that it's been something that our staff have, have noted that that was an area they wanted to continue to grow in. So we've kind of transformed our playgrounds and made them more of that natural play space. And so part of that journey was we went to last, Oh, I think it was last May or something. We went to children's land for one of our staff meetings. And when we came back from that visit there, you know, we were reflecting as a team and, you know, one of the questions that was posed to them was, you know, what had the most impact on you? And then what would you If you could, what would you want to do within our program? That was something we saw at Children's Land and overwhelmingly it came back that they really wanted to explore the whole gardening piece with the children. We're very blessed here. We have lots of property. And so having the property was, was kind of you know, obviously a big piece for a lot of. A lot of places. And so that wasn't an issue for us. So it was, so we, we basically decided at that point that we would see what we could do as far as looking at a garden. So that was kind of, that was the inspiration piece that brought us to this place. So. That's really great. So then when you got that inspiration, you brought in your staff, you said, you know, we're going to do this, but we need a plan. And you had to then, I believe, approach your board. So how did you bring that to the board to get their buy in to this project? So we looked at the educational components of of what research is telling us about the benefits to children being outside and exploring the earth being sort of more in touch with nature. We live in a rural community. And so it, to me, it made sense that we would have all the children that should have this, this knowledge and opportunity where children being raised in rural in rural Ontario, we very much a farming community. So we took those pieces, we looked at a budget. Of what it would cost because that was something we needed to have permission from the board. So we looked at a cost for staffing and a cost for supplies. And so we wrote that up in a proposal, took it to the board and they approved it. So it was our pilot this year. Awesome. So so moving forward, you then had Susie here as your role of the horticulturalist within your center, but she is a registered early child educator that was already part of your team. So how did you kind of transform that role? And how did that work for you? So part of our, our discussion with other people in, in the field I spoke with Jackie at Children's Lands, was sort of looking for the things that were most important when we were looking for someone to do this role of horticulture, horticulturalist is. And overwhelmingly it came back that, that they needed first and foremost to understand children and child development. We can learn about horticulture, we can learn about growing and about the earth. But those skills of working with children were, were something that we needed to have really in place. So they recommended that we hire somebody that already had those skills. So, so we ended up deciding Susie was interested and, you know, we already knew that she was great with kids and understood the children and knew the children of our center. And so we decided to hire from within our own team. That's great. What a great way to really kind of show leadership within your own team. So Susie, Lynn kind of mentioned that this was a bit of an interest for you. So like, tell me a little bit about your interest and or did you have to do any training to add to this role that you are now taking on? So I didn't do any specific training. I do have some experience working at a greenhouse and growing my own garden and just it's a hobby of mine. But I did do the full children's lands training in the spring of 2022. Yeah. So yeah, I completed the full training with some other staff members. So that really helped. That's great. So we're starting this up when you did mention about having to purchase some materials. Can you kind of be a little bit more specific or Susie? Like, what were some of those things that were on that list that anybody starting up? Maybe wanting to do this type of a program within their own centers. What are some of those must haves that you need? So, I think that a chunk of it was actually just tools we purchased a lot of child sized gardening tools, so spades, wheelbarrows rakes, that type of thing, and we also did some, like, books and just materials to get children inspired. But really, you could take, like, you could purchase kind of anything that your center's really interested in. That's great. And so you took this, you spoke about your rural property there, which is a large size, of course but you took some of that land. And how did you break that up for the classrooms and for the, for your program? So we split up into groups for our classes. So each class got a spot in the garden to do whatever they chose to do with. So I kind of measured it out based on how many children were in a group that way size wouldn't be a huge issue. And then the staff in that group were kind of in charge of leading that with their group. Wonderful. And then how was your role utilized with like over the summer, spring and summer within the center. So I did a lot of just going in the classrooms and going out to the garden with the classes and getting them engaged, just getting them interested. We talked about the planting and we did the planting together and the watering and the weeding and that type of thing. And I also did a lot of engagement in the classrooms before that even began. So lots of reading books and just seeing where the kids were interested in and what they were interested in so I could really focus on those areas. That's really great. So talking about some of that learning, where did you make this learning visible within your center? So, we have a big bulletin board out in the hallway where the parents were able to come and take a look at photos that were posted and any documentation I did. That was updated, bi weekly, I would say, maybe, with just photos of what the kids were up to in the garden. And what was even growing and how everyone was getting engaged as well as actually, right when you came in, we had a small display as well. So that was really neat for parents to come and just get engaged with parents, the kids and just the, that really inspired conversations with families and children even when they're going home. And that was really cool to see. That's great. So another aspect. I've been very fortunate to be able to come to your site and watch this grow. Another aspect that you had was about compost. Can you speak to that a little bit? That was actually super exciting for myself and I think for a lot of staff that were getting really involved. It was just really fun to see the kids learn what we compost and what we didn't compost. And the groups took turns bringing the compost out to the garden. So we'd be collecting it in our class. And then it would then go out to the pavilion and then get carried out to the compost in the garden where everyone took a turn bringing it in and we'd stir it and it was just really cool to see. That's so great. Can you tell me if you had any types of barriers or challenges throughout the season? So just a small challenge I found was getting some of our staff engaged. We had a lot of staff that were super involved and loved going out there with their children, but there was also a few staff that weren't super into it, didn't like getting dirty and whatever the case may be. So anything I found that, that did get them engaged, I would really try to hone in on that and follow that interest. That way. When the staff because when the staff are getting engaged, I know the kids that's really engaging the kids is curiosity and really sparking that interest and feel helping feel the project for sure. That's great. And so, did you find at all that any of the staff that were maybe a little bit more hesitant at the beginning of the season as they saw this learning and growth happening within this whole center and the excitement that was brought in through the children, the families and the rest of the team, did you find that maybe they had a little bit more buy in by the end of the season or a little bit more excitement. Yeah. I would say so. I actually remember a few staff coming back and being like when, especially when it was time to harvest, that some staff would come back and be like, Oh, I have like tomatoes that are ready or like, whatever the case may be. And they were really excited at that point. And it's like, Oh, like something's actually happening here and their plants are actually growing kind of thing. So that was neat to see that attitude change. So, yeah, that's great. And I bet in turn, like you saw that within like the children and the families, can we speak to some of the impact that it had on them as well. So. The children were super excited to come out to the garden, especially when we started to see some things being harvested. The children were able to eat their vegetables when they came out, like when they came out to pick whatever they had growing. And some of them named their plants. They would be watering and being like, Oh, here's whoever, whatever they named it and were watering and taking care of their plant. So it was really special to see them really connecting with their own plant and what they had grown to see that connection to the land. It's really cool. That's great. And then. So what about the families? Have you had some feedback from the families or the some engagement from them? And where did they kind of stand here? Sure. The families, the feedback from families has been really positive. A lot of them were had a lot of feedback early in the spring when we were just first starting the project, how many of them were super excited that we were doing this. And, and then I, I really enjoyed watching when there was extra produce. Yeah. Susie had it set up in a bit of a display at the door and it would, families were allowed to take it home. And so the kids, of course, wanted to take it home because they were excited to show to their parents, Hey, this came from our garden. And they would take some of the produce home, which you know, it was wonderful. It's been really, it's been a positive experience throughout the whole center. So it's a great buy in from families. That's amazing. So I'm really curious, like, what are your next steps for your, you know, over the winter into the next spring? Where do you want to take this further? Well, we definitely need we've got some work to do for fall cleanup. I know Susie and I have talked about, you know, we need to clean the garden and. We do, we did plan some perennials, which might pose a bit of a problem. We because it's a fairly big garden. We need to get it plowed again. This year, probably 1 of our challenges a little bit was a lot of weeds as well. So getting the soil turned over a few times will help to hopefully get rid of some of that. And then. We actually are going to purchase a small greenhouse which will really extend our learning for the children in the springtime. It'll give more opportunity to, even though we planted a lot of seeds inside last, this past spring, and we seem to do that almost every year they don't always do well in the classrooms. You know, that there's sometimes not enough light or the classrooms are busy and they get damaged sometimes. Little fingers that Like to pull them out. And so having a greenhouse where they can go and visit and, and have see the seeds growing in a small plants will be great. So definitely our plan is to continue to grow this project to continue to see the learning that's happening within the team and within our families. That's so wonderful. Okay, I have one last question here for you to today, and that would be, you know, anybody that is interested. Do you have tips, tricks or hacks that kind of came up? Or that maybe you would do something a little differently, or maybe you've got a clue for something that worked really, really well that you would like to pass on to them. I think one thing we have to always remember that this is, this is a process and it's okay to fail. It's okay for things not to grow or for something not to work. It's a learning process. So my thing is, is get out there and just do it. Yes, have a plan get some buy-in from your supervisor, your board, or whoever you know controls things like that. Buying from families. I mean, often there's not a lot of resources within, in our sector for things like this. So often our families are a wealth of help. You know, so we, we, yeah, just step out, do it and, and see where it goes and continue just to enjoy that process and the learning process with the children. Wonderful. Susie, do you have any last thoughts? I think mine was very similar, like as far as advice was very similar to Lindsay's, just maybe lower your expectations as far as, and especially if you're doing a garden, it's not going to be pretty, but it's going to be super fun and a lot of learning is going to happen. So, yeah. Maybe. Well, that is so great. And I have thoroughly enjoyed watching this happen. And I'm so excited to watch the screen house and and the journey continue to build and grow within your team and your center. I can't thank you both enough for the time that you spent with me today to speak to your earth exploration project. And I hope that you have inspired other sites and teams to do the same. So thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, Nicole.