Innocent UK #SowandGrowUK - An Update - Part 2

It has been nearly a month since our last update with the innocent and GIY #SowandGrow campaign.

It has been a busy month but before I tell you about it, let’s first recap our progress so far.

We've been following the weekly activities provided by the resources pack, planting seeds, competitively measured growth and investigating different environments needed to successfully grow plants.

We had mixed success with seeds.  The cress grew quickly and thickly! The runner beans were a success too; week on week they grew and our careful nurturing meant they needed more space so were moved outside.

The only seeds that didn't grow were the carrots. I’m unsure why these failed, but it was something we discussed and was useful to reflect on in our “correct environment” lesson.

The next part of the campaign involved using the knowledge gained so far and planting into the ground. 

Week 5

Our runner beans had grown sufficiently big to be taken outside and planted in our boarders and self-made frame. We knew this was a good environment because we had massive success with them in previous years!

However, this wasn’t the case. Within a week they were destroyed by slugs, much to the upset of the boys.

The boys were quite sad, but we took it as a lesson and sat down to discuss the environment the beans needed and what we would do the same/differently next time.

We then planted more runner beans and also tomatoes, Strawberries and peppers along with a selection of flowers.

We incorporated what we had previously learnt and used soil and some compost and planted our seeds 2cm apart.

Week 6

By nurturing our seeds we saw some great results. The runner beans took off instantly and 8 of our tomato plants and 4 of our pepper plants sprouted from 10 pots each, so we were quite pleased!

The strawberries were our greatest surprise as all of them sprouted.  It was joyful to see and there was a small twinkle in the boy’s eyes when I said “Imagine all of the strawberries we can eat in a few months!”

Week 6 continued with a lesson provided in the educational pack. The lesson was to get arty and create something based around our fruit and veg!

The pack offered extensive suggestions on the different types of art work we could try from creating pictures from seeds, painting clay pots to painting pictures.

This was a slight teacher fail on my part.  If I had read in detail the entire pack I would have created a 6 week art topic based around it.

However, this didn't mean we still couldn’t do some art.

We started off by creating paint prints using fruit and vegetables.

James did plain prints by cutting different vegetables, painting them and pressing them against the paper. William decided to be more creative and created “plants” from potatoes and designed his own leaves but cutting out the different shapes, painting them and then press printing.

The best part here was the opportunity to extend the activities to suit the class and age. This is shown within the work that the boys completed; both created fruit and vegetable prints but each within their unique individuality and ability.

Week 7

Like every week we started off by measuring and recording the growth of the seeds we planted.

There was a stark comparison between the growth of the runner beans and strawberries compared to the tomatoes and peppers.

The latter are continuing to grow but the boys are really interested by the little stalk heads and the other two plants are growing higher. This allowed us to explore the different stages the plants will go through within their growth.

This was also the week that we ventured up to London to tour around Fruit Towers the HQ of innocent UK.

There is so much  I want to tell you about Fruit Towers but I can’t  fit it all in this post, so I will be writing another one in a couple of days. 

To simply say that the building design and general layout is amazing is not enough. Every corner, wall and room has been cleverly designed to reflect the company’s personality, promote enjoyment of work and look for ways to save power and energy.

Along with a Willy Wonker Chocolate Factory style where the carpet is artificial grass, the lifts are decorated by theme, a floor with a lego building wall, a room with a magnetic wall, a train set on the ceiling and hidden messages around every corner.

We were also given the history of the company.  innocent started in 1999 selling smoothies at a music festival. They literally put up a big sign asking people if they thought the creators should give up their jobs to make smoothies, and put a bin saying 'Yes' and a bin saying 'No" in front of the stall and the rest became history.

Their ability to be green as a company and a building shone through. They strive to take responsibility for the impact of business on the environment, and move their impacts from negative to positive. Examples of this was a leavers leaver that turned the electricity off to the floor when the last person leaves and a light alarm that flashed to save energy in comparison to air con verses open windows.

The general openness of the entire company, building and staff made the tour truly amazing; something the boys and I have continued to talk about since.

Week 8

This week was back to hard work and growing. It was also National Gardening Week – launched s. Six years ago by the RHS and aimed to become the country’s biggest celebration of gardening. Thousands of people and groups have got involved over the years and we jumped on-board, using this time to prepare our garden for the growth and transfer of our ever growing plants.

This time we have placed egg shells and other natural slug deterrents down to give us a chance.

We have always been gardening fans here and it is a great opportunity for the boys to push their energy into digging, turning soil over and pulling out all of the weeds!

It took us a while but we have a garden ready for transferring our plants and seeing the fruit (pun intended) of our labour.

Overall summary

These last 4 weeks have seen smiles and tears at the different activities. We have seen growth and change from our fruit and vegetables, investigated environmental factors, been creative, worked hard and visited Fruit Towers!

innocent and GIY continue to show their ability to produce fantastic lessons that engage children.

Furthermore, their aim to have children learn more about where food and healthy alternatives come from is working well and the extended message about being green and sustainable has really shone through; something that we are always happy to promote.

Is your school signed up? If so upload your photos at https://innocentsowandgrow.com/ to be in with the chance to win monthly prizes from innocent and see your classroom crowned as Sow & Grow champions! Following the repackage of innocent kids drinks, consumers can also win seed packs by following the instructions on pack. Available nationwide now in most major supermarkets. Good luck!

(This is a collaboration with Innocent and GIY. My opinions are my own and I am under no obligations to give a positive review! Please see my full disclosure at the bottom of my blog)