The potato! The little bumps that grow on a potato's skin are called "eyes". An eye can grow into a new potato plant. A potato is a tuber. A tuber is a fat underground stem with little buds, that can grow into new plants. Students are in a hurry to see them grow, dig out potatoes and make them into fries......hmmmmm, let us see what happens...
Do plants only grow from seeds? We are experimenting to see whether they can grow from roots, seeds, leaves and stems.....
Thank you, Nick Giardino ( David's dad) for helping us make a raised bed. I asked my class what they would like to plant in our own little garden, they said, unanimously, a secret garden with pretty things in it, just like the Secret Garden! (We had read this book in the fall and they took me by surprise when they mentioned it. It is one of those books that stays with you, I guess.) So I asked, "What kind of pretty plants?" They said, something really beautiful to come back to, since school is almost over. I couldn't disagree. Each of my students asked to plant something entirely different.
We loaded our little wagon and went to beautify our new found raised garden-bed and planted a rose bush, strawberry, pumpkin, tomato, sun-flower and coconut palm.
Students all came up with brilliant ideas as to what we could do with our plants in the fall.
1. Out of the pumpkin, make a jack o' lantern in the fall.
2. The children who come for summer camp could eat the strawberries.
3. The rose bush will keep on growing and they could enjoy looking at the roses.
4. Since the coconut palm is a tropical plant, it will not survive the winter so Amelia is going to re-pot it in the fall, take it home and care for it.
5. The sunflower seeds could be used to plant it next year or eat the seeds for snacks.
This morning we had a lovely surprise from a mom who had just come back from visiting The Muir Woods. The students were in awe to see the pictures of these gigantic trees. We are experimenting by growing ferns from a redwood burl. Thank you, Mrs. Godwin, for bringing us such a precious gift.
We went on a neighborhood nature walk looking for something exciting. The children were busy with their clip boards, trying to sketch an exotic plant that they spotted.
What an amazing month it has been exploring and learning so much about the greens in our lives; in and around our school and the Matthai Botanical Gardens!
Anita, I don't know if you have time for any more off-site work before the end of the year, but I'd like to invite you and your class to my very own secret garden, which is in crazy bloom right now and has flowers, seed-pods and fruits to examine and well as some aquatic plants to study. There are little pockets of secrecy to hide away in amongst the flowers. It's pretty spectacular right now. What do you think? We could read 'A Child's Garden of Verses' and come up with some of their own...
ReplyDeleteI know time is short - it's just an idea. Let me know!
Joanna
Joanna, it sounds delightful! When can we come?
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for the invite.
Cheers,
Anita
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