Plant Power! Bring on the Spring!

Ugh.  So tired of snow and sooo ready for Spring!  Right now, it's raining outside, but there's the possibility that it might mix with snow tonight.  Boo!

My family spent yesterday at Busch Gardens (Williamsburg) celebrating St. Patrick's Day with the leprechauns and generally just having fun! :)  The weather was FANTASTIC!  I mean, 60 degree day!  Snow - tonight???  ARGH!

Anyway, we tried to bash away the winter blahs this week by going full force into our plant unit after losing 3 days last week to the "s" word.

We used this wonderful golden oldie AIMS activity to dissect seeds.  I'd share, but I'm worried about copyright (hint hint:  do a Google search....shhh!  I won't tell). 

Then, we created this Pinterest-inspired (slightly altered) activity.  I like using the straw for a stem to help teach that it "sucks up" the water and delivers it to the rest of the flower.  It's impossible to glue, so we taped it down.  The flower is a cupcake liner.

We also "planted" seeds and are observing them day by day to see how they grow!  Students are anxiously awaiting the first stage with the roots!  We're documenting it each day in a plant journal.

We also had a visit from our "4H Lady" to get our 2nd grade gardens ready for planting!  Students learned about the different types of soil, how worms help gardeners, and pulled out the old plants (that our cafeteria uses in salads and taste testings which is too cool!) to make ready for new!

 

Since I was out Friday afternoon and will be Monday afternoon thanks to a cancelled and rescheduled doctor's appointment for my son, the St. Pat's activities were confined to reading and writing (because we are too behind on math!).  Students wrote a letter to the leprechaun asking him not to trash our room (with the sub).  I warned students beforehand that if they didn't use the correct letter format, he'd trash our room!  

When I went to school after hours on Friday, I checked where they had hung them in the hallway for "Lucky" to see, and most of them looked great with only a few errors!  Good thing - I told them that in the past, my classes had always gotten some sort of treat from the leprechaun, and that it often included a treasure hunt!  Students were MOST excited to hear that.  Of course, some asked me how trashed was the room in the past, and I told them that I didn't know, since my students had always written their letters very carefully!  hah hah :)

So, after resource (which we have at 8:15), students will find a note on the board from the leprechaun and the first clue in their hunt!  The "pot of gold" at the end are shamrock stickers and "gold" (Rolos).
I have the leprechaun hunt as a freebie at my TpT store from last year.  Click {here} to check it out!