Senses in the Garden Workshop

Today we engaged with our different senses in the garden starting with our sense of sight while looking at various plants in the garden and matching them to paint samples! It was eye-opening to finally notice the wide spectrum of colours within one physical space. We were delighted to find unique colours such as bright blues and shades of purple in such unexpected spots like at the bottom of corn plants.

  

We then removed the sense of sight and engaged with our sense of smell! In partners, one person lead the other partner who had their eyes closed around the garden. We were quite surprised about how heightened the rest of our senses were and how much trust we had to put on our partner as they guided us around! This would be a fun and interactive game for all ages although we did learn that it would be a good idea to provide blindfolds for younger children because they tend to peek!

After a sharing circle, we moved on  to collecting different herbs and flowers for our homemade perfumes. Then we headed back to Scarfe for a delicious lunch! The workshop group prepared kale chips, rosemary potatoes, salad, bread, cheese, hummus, and mint chocolate chip cookies! Best of all, many of the ingredients were harvested from the Orchard Garden. The workshop group played some calming background music to appeal to the sense of hearing.

 

After lunch, we mixed together the different scents and created homemade perfumes! First we used popsicle sticks to crush the herbs and flowers in coffee filters which enabled us to control the intensity of the natural essences. We also watched a commercial made by students in Isis' class who were advertising their perfumes. It was great to see students involved in their learning and seeing them connect technology with outdoor education!

Overall our 3-week CFE experience has been a wonderful journey with many learning opportunities for integrating garden-based learning in the school setting! We really appreciate all of the experiences and resources we have gone through during our CFE. We wish everyone the best in their teaching journeys! Hopefully we stay in touch! See you around Scarfe everyone! :)