Potatoes for Schools

I registered for 'Potatoes for Schools' ages ago and then forgot all about it. Then a big envelope arrived a few weeks ago with our free potato growing kit, just around the time I was thinking about what we might do with our little growing space this year and how we might involve the children with it.  Our garden is mainly a second playroom for the boys, but I have over the past couple of years, cleared away a lot of junk from a small (tiny actually!) courtyard area I have which is fenced off.  I had given up on being able to grow anything ever again until I reclaimed this space as little fingers will pull flowers, leaves and tomatoes etc. off plants so this little area is quite precious to me and our daughter. I do however, let the boys in there while supervised to do little gardening activities so the potatoes for schools thing seems a great little project for them, particularly as they have recently started eating them! 

There are very strict dates for doing this project if you want to enter the competition (which we do because the prize is an interactive whiteboard which would come in very handy!) so today, as per instructions, we started chitting the potatoes - an ideal task for little boys who like to put things 'in'.

The 2011 Potatoes for Schools registration is closed but you can already register for 2012 here. There are lesson plans and worksheets on the website too.  Most is not relevant to our way of learning but there is a picture of the plant which we will maybe use later on for colouring and talking about the different parts of the potato plants.