Planting Time!

Students have enjoyed learning a fun song by The Banana Slug Band, called Plants Have Six Parts (google it and enjoy singing it together at home!) to help them identify and label the parts of plants. Also, a group sorting activity helped students learn which parts of plants people eat, some were tricky like tomatoes - fruit or vegetable and do you eat the seeds?



Today, I introduced the class to a new service learning project. We will be planting a sunflower garden as part of the Harrison Field UES gardens - our garden will grow Mammoth Sunflowers. The best part of the project, students agreed, is the new Kindergarten class will visit the garden several times in the fall, and collect the flower heads for their first science unit on sunflowers. Students are very excited to give back, since they remember what it was like being a kindergartner and how much fun it was to collect and study the sunflower seeds! 


Students also became teachers today - 
running three science centers. 
1. Planting sunflower seeds in soil. 
2. Planting sunflower seeds in goose/chicken eggshells as an experiment to test the strength of plants' roots - will the roots crack the shells open? 
3. Planting sunflower seeds in a clear jar with only a wet paper towel - will they grow and will we be able to see the roots?