‘Growing up green’ was the first song we taught to our very first group of nature school students.  We used it as our opening welcome song, until we finally mastered so many verses that we had to open with a more concise ditty!  With the sun finally emerging, evidence of ‘growing and green’ seem to be all around us at Terra Nova, with the trees, shrubs, and grasses changing our sightlines in the park,  and our raised garden beds looking better than ever, thanks to a mountain of compost and many helping hands to tackle the endless seeding and weeding.  We hope you can find a wee spot to plant your Mother’s Day gift: the homemade, seeded paper that will grow into pollinator-friendly plants.  Dandelions are amongst the first foods for bees, so we have been talking with all the children about mindful harvesting: picking a few blossoms for a bouquet, mud kitchen soup, or even real dandelion tea, while leaving plenty for the bees.  Learning to identify both pollinators and plants has renewed the children’s desire to research using field guides and encyclopedias.  And the soon-to-be Kindergartners in particular are demonstrating their understanding of the purposes of letters and words – to communicate and share stories – something else that grows in abundance at Terra Nova Nature School!

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