Visit to Botanical Garden (2)

17 and 24 March

After a start with obstacles, yet another beautiful spring day was spent in the National Botanical Gardens. Before arriving though, Mark Vaes, our optimistic and competent bus driver, maneuvered the second group of Lower Primary children, Jan Lange and Isabelle Coppola through the neighbourhoods of Meisse to the entrance after having successfully completed an unexpected tour through a labyrinth of streets created by the local authorities dealing with yet another hole in the ground.

This day proofed to be as pleasant as the first time. The weather was excellent, the spirits were high, and the explanations of Quentin Groom sowed just the right seeds to wanting to discover more, and more and more. Again, once the children started drawing, they simply couldn’t be stopped. It was wonderful to witness the motivation and intensity these children engaged themselves in wanting to capture the huge variety of plant life and the drive to understand the concept of time in the light of the evolution of the plants.

Whilst this group of children tried to extend their visit to the greenhouses as long as possible, the previous group had started in Tervuren to build a bamboo construction. Once this was erected they decorated it with a wide variety of paper leaves, each of them carrying a Latin name of one or other plant they had drawn the week before.

Soon photos of this can be found in the section ‘Photo Albums.’

After the Easter Break, the different plants discovered by the children, will form the basis for a simple Plant Classification. The story continues.