Plants and Animals in the Springtime ...

I have been away from the blog for a bit, but I'm fired up and ready to get back to work!  So much has been going on in our classroom and at home, the blogging had to take the back seat for a short time. 

Our class has been studying Plants and Animals in science, and we follow the 2nd grade Foss Science curriculum.  The kids have been so excited about every aspect of the unit!  We have grown grass, alfalfa, wheat, oats, and plant cuttings, and just this past Thursday, we planted terrariums.  By the second day, we had sprouts!  It has been a good time for all of us, especially since we have worked hard to incorporate parts of the science unit into literacy and math as well.  As an extension activity the week we focused on the parts of a plant and their jobs, the kids made potted plants out of construction paper.  The front is a beautiful plant, while the back is a diagram.  At the end of the activity, the students were given labels.  They then had to label the various parts of the plant.  Since we hang all of our projects from the ceiling, this double sided project worked great.  Here is an example:

I used online coloring pages to create tracers.  The students came up with the idea to make it a "double flower" on top.  They each cut out 2 petal pieces, and then glued the stem between them.  When they attached the petals, they did not line them up perfectly, but "in the spaces", which made the flowers quite attractive. 



Here is a pic of the first plants the kids planted.  We "mow" the grass once a week, and take measurements.  We also make predictions for how much the plants will grow.  We have even gone outside of the curriculum and started experimenting with different locations and amounts of water to see what happens.  Their enthusiasm for this unit inspires me!