Year 6 made the most of a bit of sunshine in outdoor learning this week.
They stripped willow for wreath making, made dens, practised knots and pretended to abseil, made a shop, moved leaf mulch to our new mulching cage and lots more.
We also made some links with the science that the class are doing. They are learning about the heart and circulatory system in class and whilst we can’t look at those outside, we can investigate stem cells in plants.
We talked about how stem cells – in plants and animals – can grow into anything that the living thing needs. We discussed how research is going on to discover how we can use human stem cells to help cure heart disease.
In plants, stem cells mean that we can propagate cuttings – the plant stem cells somehow know that they need to grow into roots, not the leaves that were once there. So we can grow a new plant from a cutting, without needing a seed. We said it is a bit like the idea of cutting someone’s arm off, planting it, and a whole new person growing from that arm.
We planted 5 cuttings: mint, rosemary, willow, ash and oak. We made the test fair by using the same sized pots, the same amount of the same compost, and taking the cuttings at the same time. We will also keep them in the same place (inside, as it’s winter) and water them the same amount.
With the help of Mrs. Frost, a gardening expert, we made predictions. We think the mint, willow and rosemary will do well. We are not sure about the ash and oak.
We will monitor them and see how they go.
