Plant Detectives

Because the weather has been so cold . . . brrrrrr . . . we've been doing some learning on the computers about plants. We used a really cool site: http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/gpe/index.html
to learn about the different parts of plants and what they need to grow. After we finished researching a "case file" we solved some plant mysteries. It was fun. We worked in partners, too, which made it a little easier.
We also did some more plant observations. The seeds that we planted at the beginning of the year keep showing us new stuff. Sometimes they grow really well. Sometimes they shrivel and die. Sometimes nothing happens. Today, 3 more of us reseeded our plant jars. We put in LOTS of seeds to make sure SOMETHING grew. Next week we will take our plants home. Since we'll be gone for 2 weeks, it would be a good idea to have them in a warm home instead of a chilly school. Hopefully it won't be too cold on the way home. These flower sprouts don't like chilly weather.

SHOOTS!

Were we surprised when we saw how many different plants were shooting up in our flower jars! Those of us who re-seeded have lots and lots of little sprouts. We think they will need some more room soon. So we'll be transplanting them into larger containers. We continue to journal our observations. Some of us are measuring how long the leaves are growing. We all measure how much water our soil is holding. Someone also noticed today that all the plants seem to be leaning in one direction. We realized this was because we had left our jars sitting next to the window for 2 weeks. All the plants were growing toward the light! Fascinating!
For the rest of our time today, we worked in cross grade partners to study plants on the internet. Once we have reviewed our first case, we will attempt to solve a mystery.

The Cut and Mulch Salon

Okay, it was pretty darn cold today, but the sun was out so Mrs. M. said we had to get out and do some winterizing. The first thing we did was cut back the tall grasses outside the 3rd grade windows. We would grab a handful with two hands and Mrs. M would use loppers to cut the stalks off close to the ground. Then we had to fold the long grass a couple of time to put it in a large bag. We filled up 4 bags with the grasses. There is still one more grass plant that needs to be trimmed, but we had to get to the front reading garden before our class time was over.


In the front reading garden we cut back all the mums and mulched them. If we cover up the stems, they should stay nice and toasty during the winter and be ready to bloom again next fall. We all took turns using the smaller clippers to cut the mums back. We had shoveled a trashcan full of mulch and used it all up to cover the trimmed mums.
We had a few minutes to go check on our jar flowers. We were so excited. Many of us who replanted last week have up to 6 plant stems! It's wonderful to see something growing after such a long time of nothing. One of us realized we had drowned the seeds, because when we tipped the glass jar, water seeped out of the dirt. She'll probably have to replant next time, with a few others who still don't have anything growing.

Rainy Day :(

Today we wanted to go outside and winterize our gardens. But Mother Nature thought it would be funny to play a joke on us. It rained. :( So, instead we worked in our plant journals. We took a look at our jar flowers. Those of us who didn't have any plants got to plant new seeds. We had to loosen the soil and take some out. Turns out we had those pretty packed. We found some seeds had tried to grow and there were baby roots, but they were too deep in the soil. Next we took dead plants out of their pots to study the roots. We were surprised how long some of the roots were. Once we took off all the soil, we found 2 worm friends and a roly poly bug. We invited them to live in some of our living plants. Last we used all of our soil, mixed it with a bulb fertilizer, and put it in an aquarium. We planted about 10 bulbs, most of which were tulips. We think the other were daffodils. We will see. Hopefully something will grow.

Mini Paws

Did we mention that we also had 11 mini paws? These are for all our school staff who are not classroom teachers. So last Friday, we wrote all the instructional assistants', specialists' and staff's names on the little paws. We put them in a wagon and went around the school looking for everyone. When we found someone who wasn't busy, we told them what we were doing, found their paw, inked up their thumb, and cleaned them up after they printed. We called ourselves "full-service" because we brought the paint, paper towels, wet wipes and the garbage! We all had a job and it was fun. We didn't find everyone, though, so Mrs. M had to send a e-mail to invite all the rest. They've been coming in all week. The mini paws look great, too!

A Most Productive Day

We got so much accomplished today. First we checked our flower jars. Some of us have sprouts that are pretty big. Some of us still don't have any green shoots. And some of us had green sprouts, but now they aren't there. We're learning that seeds sometimes grow correctly and sometimes they don't. All in all, it's pretty interesting.
Then Mrs. M. showed us how some of the plants in our classroom reproduce, which makes more of itself. Two plants grows new plants from the underground root. Another plant grows baby plants on a shoot shot out from the plant's stems and leaves. We are going to have quite a few baby plants to pot later this winter.




Next we went outside and did some dead-heading and thistle pulling in the front gardens. It will look very nice for the Halloween parade this afternoon. Last we help Mr. Oscar bring six containers of mulch to the hosta garden. The mulch is like a blanket for the hosta roots. They will be nice and warm during the winter.
We had hoped to put the stepping stones in the outdoor classroom today. (All the kids in school got to put a thumb print on one. They look really cool.) But no one contacted us about donating the crushed rock or gravel for the stepping stone area. Hopefully we can get that here next week and then place all our paw prints.
Mrs. M. said she'd post some photos for this entry later.

The next steps . . .

Our paw print stepping stones look soooo awesome! Today we stained the rest of them in our school colors, yellow and blue. Then we started writing the classroom teachers' names on them. We also put what grade they teach and the school year, 2008-2009. We used paint pens for that. The blue one was being difficult, and then the tip for the gold pen got really short. They turned out okay, though. Then we wrote a letter to the classroom teachers inviting them to come to the Challenge classroom sometime next week. We want every student to put a thumb-print on their classroom's paw print. They will get to use whatever color paint they want. It is going to look so cool when they are all done. We are planning to place all the stepping stones next Friday. Keep your fingers crossed that we have good weather.