Cornhill Primary School

Alice in Wonderland

P5 Room 11 have really enjoyed exploring stories from our earlier childhoods.  In our class we have 27 children, 14 of whom have moved to Scotland since they were born.  The vast array of traditional tales from around the world, made up stories from parents and British classics, which we shared with one another, made the choosing of only one story for our garden extremely difficult.  Finally, we cast our votes and the winning story was that of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.

Mad Hatter's Tea Party

'Eat me' and 'Drink me'

A colourful display

Our garden tells the story of Alice in Wonderland. 

See if you can spot the following features from the Alice in Wonderland Tale: a Flamingo garden planter to represent the Flamingos used by the Queen of Hearts and Alice to play croquet. Teapot, cup and saucer to represent the Mad Hatter’s tea party (recycled from the the school community centre. Chess pieces to represent the game of chess Alice plays in the Queen of Hearts garden. “Eat Me” box and “Drink Me” bottle to represent those which Alice consumes to grow bigger/smaller. Playing cards - representing the Queen of Heart’s Army. The White Rabbit's pocket watch. Pansies representing the Pansies which sing to Alice and think she looks funny!

To help wildlife, the garden contains flowers to attract bees and butterflies, a bug hotel and a bird feeder. You can eat the mint, spinach, coriander, strawberries, nasturtiums, raspberries and carrots. We reused a table that was going to be thrown out, old pieces of wood, an old chess set and a recycled water bottle. 

We learned how to garden in a very small space. We originally planned to include a rocking chair in our garden, but found that it looked to big, so we didn't use it in the end. We learned about teamwork, taking turns and being VERY patient. 

We were supported in our garden journey by Pocket Garden mentors, a class dad who is a joiner, grandparents, parents, Co-op and B&Q. 

Once the competition is over, all the plants we have grown will be planted into the school garden. The bug hotel, bird feeder and painted stones will be used for our class Grow a Fiver sale later in the term.

Garden Design

Creating the garden - from design to reality