Plant Life Cycles-{Update #1}

After coming back to school from being gone all weekend, my kiddos were extremely excited to see that we are beginning to see some changes. I wanted to share the progress our marigolds and beans have made in such a short amount of time (less than a week!).

Our marigolds have began sprouting. We talked about the parts of the plant we can visibly see already and what the parts' jobs are for the plant.

Our beans have began to sprout in our "houses."

Our grass seed has yet to begin growing, but we are keeping a close eye on it and super excited for our "plant people" to have their hair.

Plant Life Cycles Unit-{Day 4}

We began day four of our plant life cycles unit by writing in our journal four things that plants need to live, survive, and thrive. After writing their sentence, they had to draw a picture of a plant with the four essential things in the picture. We have been working really hard on adding details, and I think they nailed it!

We ended our plant life cycles unit today by planting grass seed in these face cups. I gave students eyes, a nose, and several mouth choices to choose from. They colored, cut, and pasted them onto their clear cups, and made their own little "people plants." I LOVE how these turned out!

When the grass grows long enough, I'm going to let my students cut and style the "hair" of their people plants.

I was a little sad for this unit to come to a close today, and that I had to cut it a day short because of having to be out of the classroom tomorrow for Kindergarten Roundup, but it sure has been fun and memorable.

Next week we will begin our oviparous animal life cycles units by hatching chicks and observing caterpillars turning into butterflies. I'm really looking forward to sharing all of it with you! Have a great weekend!

Plant Life Cycles Unit-{Day 3}

Here is how day three of our plant life cycles went...

We began our theme study by watering our marigold seeds we planted yesterday.

We followed up by completing these adorable flower crafts.

I then introduced the life cycle of a bean sprouting by using this activity from Caitlin Clabby from Kindergarten Smiles.

Then came the much anticipated bean "planting" activity.

The following items were needed for this activity:

*a roll of paper towels (the more absorbent, the better)

*sandwich size ziploc baggies

*a pack of beans (we used garden beans)

*construction paper to be made into a house (optional)

I started by tearing apart enough sheets of paper towels for each of my students.

I then gave each student one sheet of paper towel, a baggie, a bean, and a color of construction paper of their choice.

They began by cutting out their "house" from the construction paper. 

I wrote their name on their houses and allowed them to decorate them while I called groups over for the next couple steps.

After they finished cutting their houses out, they brought me their paper towel and their baggie. I folded their paper towels in half, and then in half again.

Then, I got the entire paper towel wet and squeezed out a little bit of the water.

I then placed the wet paper towel into their baggies, and I had them put their bean in between the wet paper towel and the baggie.

Then, I stapled their baggie to the backside of their house.

The final step was to tape them to my large window in the classroom for us to sit back and observe. 

This is my first time doing this activity, and with the help from one of my teaching partners, Goni, I was able to get it done fairly easily. Now, I'm excited to see them sprout! 

I will update as our beans begin to sprout and as our marigold begin to bloom.

Tomorrow will be my last day doing plant life cycles with my Kinders because our district will be holding our annual Kindergarten Roundup on Friday, so I will be out for that. I'm excited to finish up the unit with tomorrow's activity. On the agenda for tomorrow: growing grass. :)

Plant Life Cycles Unit-{Day 2}

Despite illness and my need to leave work early today, we continued our study of plant life cycles today.

We began our study today with an independent labeling activity from Caitlin Clabby from Kindergarten Smiles.

We followed up with the much anticipated seed planting activity.

For our planting activity, I purchased the following from our local Walmart:

 *a large bag of Jiffy Natural & Organic Seed Starting Mix

*Jiffy-Strips (32 count)

*Solo Clear Cups

*three different types of marigold flower seed packets

You may be wondering why I am putting the Jiffy-Strip pots into the cups rather than just adding soil directly into it. Well, a couple weeks ago, my teacher partners and I planned out the rest of our year's themed weeks since we are down to the last grading period. I then realized that Mother's Day will be coming up very soon, and I started wondering what I was going to have my students make to send home to their sweet moms. Then it occurred to me that this week would be a great opportunity to plant flowers for plant life cycles week, and hopefully they will have started to grow by Mother's Day so they could take them home to their moms. We will decorate the cups the week of Mother's Day, and then will send them home that Friday. It was a perfect idea!

I began by cutting apart each Jiffy-Strip pot, enough for each student.

I then called each table of students up to grab a cup. They added a tiny bit of soil in the bottom and then added the Jiffy-Strip pot into the cup. 

We then very carefully added soil around the sides of the pot and into the pot. 

Students then used their pointer finger to make a hole in the center of the soil.

Next, it was time for the seed planting. These are the three marigold packets I purchased for my students to choose from.

 I taped the packets to the sides of a cup...

& added the seeds into the designated cups. This allowed for students to choose their own seeds based on the marigolds they wanted to try to grow, and it also allowed for them to see what the seeds looked and felt like; an added sensory moment.

Students picked their seeds, and inserted them into the hole they had made in their soil.

Then, they covered the seeds up and patted the soil down a little bit.

Our last step was to water our newly planted marigold seeds. 

We placed our cups in the windowsill, and are waiting anxiously for them to begin growing.

Tomorrow we will be "planting" beans, so that we can observe how they sprout. Stay tuned! :)