Hampton Hills, the city at night, and teaching at Christ Church

Yesterday, we visited Hampton Hills and taught the 4th year about apples. We taught them about the growing process from seed and briefly discussed grafting. Another group did tasting with gala, pink lady, and bramley which is the cooking apple and tastes very sour unless it is cooked. The other groups discussed the change of an apple tree based on the seasons and a final group did some planting of seeds. It's was cool to see their garden which had features such as a place where children could dig for worms, a bug house which is popular in the school gardens in England, and a chicken coop all of which can be found in the images. Within the garden each student has a specific task.  We also had the opportunity to eat at the restaurant the students were running. There was also an assembly where we introduced ourselves and talked to the students about America.

Last night,  some of us students explored the main city and saw places such as the London eye and Big Ben and Parliament at night.

This morning we started off by visiting Brockwell Park and community gardens. They grow food and donate it to the community.  Schools are able to visit and work on various projects in the garden. They have benches in the greenhouse used for planting in small groups as well as other activities such as building birdhouses which was an activity that was taking place this morning with those assigned community service hours.

Later today we visited Christ Church School and worked with year 6. First, we learned about their garden which is three years old, rated level 5 by the Royal Horticulture Society, and named 'Our Secret Garden.' While in the garden students are split into groups of three with one of them as the leader. Each group has a different task such as watering , mulching,  weeding, or planting. We had the opportunity to experience this today as can be seen in the pictures below. During break, parents, families and the community help tend the garden. It was great being outside and seeing how much the students enjoyed being out in the garden.