Rain Garden Tour at Norma Rose Point Elementary School

 Hi everyone! Today we have Gen and Vivian taking over the blog, and since this is Vivian’s first post, we thought we’d give her a chance to introduce herself! Hi, I’m Vivian. I just finished my practicum with a kindergarten class in Richmond. During my practicum, I observed that incorporating outdoor learning into cross-curricular subjects can benefit diverse learners academically and can also lead them to better well-being. My kindergarteners planted beans and they really enjoyed observing the growth of their plants. This hands-on activity allowed them to understand the content deeper and to become proactive learners who are more engaged in what they were learning about. As I spend more time in the garden, I am becoming more excited about learning gardening and outdoor learning which I can implement into my future teaching practice.

Today we took a field trip away from the orchard garden so that we could see a school’s garden in action. Norma Rose Point Elementary at UBC has a beautiful outdoor space that we were grateful to share for the day. We began our day helping lead a couple of stations for some grade 1 and 2 classes. Some of us helped explore outdoor sketching and poetry with the kids, while the rest of us helped share our learning from earlier in the week on peeling Himalayan Blackberry bark. This was a lot of fun, and the kids were great at knocking the thorns off the branches and getting into their peelings! It was great to be with kids again, and to see their connection to nature that is so well fostered at this school–it’s a wonderful inspiration for our future teaching practice!

We then explored the rain garden itself. This garden is built in a depression that helps guide rainwater from the area to it, to then help maintain a natural water filtration system in the area. This also means the garden itself requires little maintenance, as the plants are being naturally watered. These plants are also largely indigenous to BC, and are adjusted to our weather patterns, again meaning it requires little maintenance compared to your standard garden, even in the drier months. Walking through the garden felt like walking through a forest, with thick brush and little nooks and crannies to explore all over. As a child, I would feel so lucky to have this space to adventure and imagine in, and to also learn and grow from nature itself. There were a few kids we spoke to that clearly had a passion for the rain garden, and the value of spaces like these is becoming increasingly apparent to us as future educators. 

I have been learning a lot about species and features of plants for the last few days. One thing that stood out to me in the rain garden was the information about the reproduction of sword ferns. Thanks to James for the detailed explanation about how sword ferns reproduce with spores. It was really interesting to learn that sword ferns release spores which grow into tiny heart-shaped plants called gametophytes. Then the male and female reproductive structures develop on the surface of the same gametophyte plants.  I found it interesting that sperms released by the male structures swim through in the waterdrop to fertilize the egg in the female structure. It’s always fascinating to learn how plants and animals are reproduced. 

Thanks for reading, and we look forward to sharing more of our learning in the next couple of weeks!