Our Garden is Awakening!

First grade had their last gardening class this week.  While we were outside, we noticed that some of our plants are starting to grow!

Daffodil leaves.

Tulip leaves.

Our chive is looking great already!

A butterfly bush!

Purple Aster just starting to push up through the ground.

These daffodils have buds!

I am so excited to see how our garden does this season!

Gardening with First Graders!

First graders started gardening class in December.  That might sound like a crazy idea, especially when the temperatures are hovering around freezing and the garden looks like this:

But 1st grade has actually been very busy exploring soil...

We found rocks, twigs, leaves and grass.

We found lots of roots.

We even found a strange critter!

The soil from our garden looks very healthy!

 and observing red wigglers from our classroom wormery.

Red wigglers are smaller than earthworms and live in compost.

When they get scared, the squiggle around like crazy!

We even found some baby worms!

After looking at our garden soil and the composting worms, we dissected a lima bean seed.

The lima beans were soaked in water to soften
the seed coat and make it easier to get off.

Trying to get the seed coat off the seed. We
discovered the seed coat protects the seed
just like our coats protect us!

 There is food in every seed which allows it to
grow in the soil before reaching the surface and
the sunshine.

Look!  You can see the root is already starting to grow out of the seed!

The root growing from the seed.

You can see the little leaves.

The seed coat and the food for the seed.

I found the root and the leaf!

 Next we will plant mystery seeds and see what grows!

Gardening with Kindergarteners!

It has been a wonderful three months gardening with the kindergarteners!  We started our curriculum when it was warm and the plants were still growing and producing vegetables.  Now we have had our last class and the garden has been put to bed!

With the garden in this resting state, our last two classes were spent looking at and drawing a special spot in the garden that reminds us of fall and....

One small flower still growing!

This raised bed looks like fall...there are no plants.

The leaves in the garden are fall.

 

No plants here!  Just fall leaves.

 ...looking at what is in the soil in our raised beds! It is important for our plants to have good soil so it can grow!

We found little rocks.

There are leaves and pieces of wood in the dirt.

Rubbing the soil on our paper.

We found a burrowing spider!

Is that a worm?

Roots!

Kindergarten Plants Corn Seeds and Watches them Grow!

Kindergarten has been busy investigating all parts of the tree!  We have looked at the trunk, leaves but wondered how can we look at the roots of the tree?

Well...we planted corn seeds during our gardening class...

First we made a sign for our seed...

So we will know which of the 140 plants is ours!

Then we put soil in the cup.

The cup has a hole in the bottom incase we
 water our plant a little too much!

Next we added about 4 corn kernels.

Sometimes some extra seeds get dropped in!

Cover the seeds and water!

Ready to grow!

It's too cold outside, so the seeds were brought inside...

And put in the grow lab in my classroom!

Two weeks later...our corn seeds have grown!  We first drew what our plant looked like and then, carefully and gently, we pulled our corn seedling out to look at the root structure.

You can see the roots growing from the seed!

There are so many roots!

My roots are so long!

We discussed how the roots help the plant get food and stay
in one place!

Lastly, we re-planted our corn seedling and should be making their way home to continue growing in your homes!