at Victoria School of Performing and Visual Arts.
May - June 2002
The makings of an inquiry project into the needs of plants.
Completed by twenty two grade one students at Victoria School of Performing and Visual Arts during the months of May and June, 2002
Introductory Activities
1.Donut Seeds
The children in my class are always interested in stories of my own childhood, my children's adventures and even stories about my dog. To begin the inquiry into "The needs of plants and animals" I told the donut seed story.
2. Finding seeds - the children carefully
pulled apart a variety of fruits and vegetable to locate the seeds. They
also brought seeds from home to compare, measure , and draw.
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3. Popcorn - "What would a popcorn plant look like?"
" If you planted a small kernel
of popcorn what would grow?
Justin's popcorn blossoms are falling to the ground. |
Popcorn grows best with plenty of light and care. |
Jayne's popcorn balls growing out of a bowl of butter. |
Now what really did grow.
| Eureka! a popcorn seed grows into a corn plant! |
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4. Tops and Bottoms
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5. Secret Garden - extending learning outside the classroom doors to the hallways, and our outdoor classroom (Stollery Sculpture Garden)
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Questions posed by the kids
| Why do plants need a pot? | Why are flowers so pretty? | What is a male flower? |
| What is a shoot made up of? | Why do some trees have flowers? | Are some plants poisonous? |
| Why are some trees tall and some small? | Do plants always grow? | Why so sunflowers point to the sun? |
| Why do trees’ roots grow more than flowers? | Why do fruits grow on trees? | Why do trees have wood? |
| What is a plant? | Where do trees grow? | How do cactuses live without water? |
| What is pollen? | What is a seed? | What are trees? |
| Why do bees buzz? | Why do roots grow so long? | Why do trees have leaves? |
| What do roots do? | How are seeds spread? | Why do plants need dirt? |
| Why do flowers smell pretty? | Why do leaves change color?
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Personal Investigations
As the inquiry into the nature of plants,
gardens and living things expanded and interest grew the children began
to take more ownership for the direction they wished their personal inquiries
to take.
| Shawna planted a garden in a
container at home. She carefully tended it at home and then brought it
into the class to share and be enjoyed by us all.
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Naomi's tomatoes |
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| Devin was fascinated by the idea of changing a plant's color. He was absolutely sure if a white carnation could be made to turn blue by placing it into colored water, it would stand to reason that if you watered a cactus with red water the whole thing would turn red. He carefully set up the experiment and tended his cactus on the window ledge. His excitement was hardly containable when the spikes on the cactus started to turn the barest hint of red. |  |
Kaitlyn found out
there was more than one kind of sunflower and wow can you ever learn a
lot about a plant just from the seed package.
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