Agriculture in the Classroom

I have been lucky enough to attend several Virginia Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom workshops.  I would assume that other states have similar programs.  The speakers always share neat activities, and free books are given away.  I am not sure if there are as many freebies anymore, though, because of budget issues. 

I bring this up because I wanted to share with you some of these books that are awesome to use during a plant unit.

The first book that I would like to introduce you to is Why the Brown Bean was Blue:  The Story of a Soybean Frown Turned Upside Down by Susan M. Pankey.  It talks about the many things that are made from the soybean.

Another good story is Bread Comes to Life:  A Garden of Wheat and a Loaf to Eat by George Levenson.

This book takes the reader from the wheat field to a kitchen where bread is handmade.

The third book is From Plant to Blue Jeans by Arthur John L'Hommedieu.

This book is fantastic because it shows children how some of the clothes that they wear start as plants!  It takes them from the field, to the processing plants, to stores.


George Washington Carver is one of our first grade S.O.L.s, so I always talk about him during my plant unit.  An excellent book that I use is called A Weed is a Flower:  The Life of George Washington Carver by Aliki.

This is a great book that talks about Carver's life and love of plants.

What interesting books do you use with your plant unit?

Happy Monday (Countdown to Spring Break....3 days)!!

How Does Your Garden Grow...Without Soil?!

I think that is it so important for my kiddos to see the life cycle of a plant.   So, we planted seeds in a couple of different ways.

First, we "planted" lima bean seeds on a wet paper towel.  I told my firsties that the seeds that they were planting had been in a bag in my file cabinet for ten years (They were impressed, I felt old).  We decided that they had not sprouted because they had never had any water.  Some of my teaching buddies put their baggies of seeds in their classroom windows.  In my entire teaching career, I've never had a window, but the seeds always sprout.  I put the bags of seeds on the bulletin board closest to natural light.

The second way I show how seeds sprout I learned from my cooperative teacher when I did my student teaching in a first grade classroom.  Take a clear punch style cup and line it with a paper towel. Then fill the paper towel with soil.  Finally, put several popcorn seeds on the OUTSIDE of the paper towel (between the paper towel and cup).  The nutrients from the soil will soak through the paper towel.

When I taught third grade, I would have one cup with potting soil, one with clay soil, and one with sandy soil.  We would make predictions about which type of soil would grow the strongest, healthiest plants.

A week or so ago, I POSTED about my root viewer that I bought from Bass Pro Shop.  Check out our green thumbs!

On a personal note, I plan on planting lettuce, onion, and garlic in my own garden this weekend.  I can't wait!

Happy, happy Friday!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

I love all of the seasons, but I especially enjoy spring.  Working in my garden, flowers in bloom, warm temperatures - I love it all.

Teaching about plants is one of my favorite units.  When I did my student teaching in a first grade classroom ten or so years ago, I made a big book that shows the parts of a plant, what plants need to survive, etc.  It is showing it's age, but I still enjoy using it:

The yellow parts of a plant signs are on Velcro.  Each child will have the opportunity to match the vocabulary word with the picture.  I also have one with a tree where the students have to identify the roots, trunk, branches, and leaves.

This past summer, I found the neatest thing at the kids section in Bass Pro Shop.  I have found LOTS of neat science things there.  This is a great way to help students understand the plant parts:

This kit contains three plastic tubes, peat pellets, and a package each of carrots, onions, and radishes.  We planted the seeds and borrowed some space on one of my neighbor teacher's window ledge to put our "garden," since, as many of you know, I don't have a window in my classroom.

We can't wait to watch our garden grow!

We will be planting some other seeds, which I will blog about later in the week.

Happy Sunday!