WOW what a whopper!!! Now, this is how to start a lesson. This beautiful pumpkin specimen has certainly been a talking point for pupils this
week!!!
As a verb, to harvest something means that you pick or gather it. As a noun, harvest means the time of year when crops are ripe and ready to be gathered. The harvest is the time when you reap what you sow.
Thanks so much to the St Peter’s community for their harvest offerings.This year there has been a plethora of goodies and essentials which have been gathering in the main reception foyer. Everyone is so generous. We will use these harvest boxes in our service on the last day of half term. Then this produce will all be passed on to support local families through food banks schemes organised by the Open Door Centre in Exmouth.
Around the school pupils have taken time to reflect on our 21st Century lives; the way food is harvested now compared to how we used to harvest and thinking about why things have changed. We seem to have moved incredibly quickly toward an ‘unseasonal’ lifestyle. Every product is available pretty much all year round from all around the world. Some of the more unusual but very seasonal produce shared with the children this week has fascinated, surprised and wowed them!
Teaching any child about harvest is pure joy. Teaching the youngest children about it, is magical. One day this week, as soon as I saw the Early years children and staff go down to the dining hall, I ran into each classroom snapping this wondrous time of year – from my hands and knees – this is what the children saw.
I spotted activities which asked for reading, writing, finding, tasting, smelling, licking, cutting, cooking, baking, drawing, carving, studying with magnifying glasses and practising with knives.
All this work on the children’s harvest jobs lists….I can only imagine how those lucky children must have looked when completing their jobs – I daresay like ‘Devonshire dumplings’ being confident naming local produce and going on to learn how to use them or store them as winter provisions.
L.Ball
