Busy Botanists

Over the past few weeks we have been learning about the life cycle of plants. Students set out to determine what all plants need to survive and what they might want to thrive by designing their own experiments in small groups.  Each group determined a variable (worms, fertilizer, water, space, soil, sunlight) and set up their control plant. They have been watering everyday and making observations weekly. We have been working hard on learning about what makes a strong scientific observation and the botanists have been adding labels, measurements, and predictions about possible causes for their plant's growth (or lack of!) We will write our conclusions to our investigation this coming week!

The water variable group records their observations for the week

Abbie measures her rapidly growing seedling!

In addition to our plant study we have also been learning about heredity and genetics. We've had lots of hands on activities to get the students familiar with the concept of traits and how they are passed down from generation to generation in all animals and plants. We have been learning lots of new vocabulary words and tackling some pretty complex reading around this topic, so we used this  opportunity to practice more close reading skills. In a close read the students read the text several times and go through each paragraph to "make tracks" of their thinking. This type of reading strategy has helped the students to ask questions, learn new vocabulary, and engage in discussion around this fascinating concept. 

Now for their final performance task they are combining their knowledge of plants and genetics to "create" a new kind of plant. First the students researched different types of flowers and decided which to "breed" Then they got to decide which traits would be passed on to the new creation. We can't wait to see their artistic representations of the Tulily, Rosansy, and Veronisunflower! 

 

Close Reading=Deeper Thinking

Next week we will begin the rehearsal for our team performance! Each classroom will be taking a plant themed story and recreating it on the big stage. Our family performance will be on Friday, June 5th at 9:00. If you are unable to make that time we will be having a dress rehearsal for the other 3/4 teams on Wednesday, June 3rd at 10:30. We hope to see you all there!