Mangos, Papayas and Guava fruit, Oh My!!

This week we have been talking alot about seeds and how they travel from their parent plant to their new location to germinate.  We read "The Tiny Seed" by Eric Carle, and each Shark is writing and illustrating their own version of this tale using collage and texture painting and publishing on Powerpoint.  We cut open some fruits and found, or attempted to find (do naval oranges have a seedless variety?? If so, oops!) When I asked the class to share examples of fruit, I got every fruit under the sun, except the basics like apples, bananas and oranges.  Have you ever had jack fruit??

The seeds we planted are beginning to germinate for the garden.  Now, if only mother nature would cooperate and give us some warm weather to plant them!!  We will be studying cacti, the photosynethesis process, and the purpose of a flower in the coming weeks as we continue to "travel" to various regions and learn about different Native American cultures.

There's gotta be seeds in here somewhere??

LW is dissecting an orange( I didn't know they were seedless!)

The best part of today's lesson was eating the fruit!

CH and EJ showing off their Pueblo dresses.

NB and GH leading their own reading group!

JE and DS enjoying the fruit

Exploring Seeds

This week, we have talked about the life cycles that humans, insects and plants go through.  We saw that all living things begin as a seed, and go through several transformations in life.  We read The Dandelion Seed today, and discussed the ways that seeds travel.  The students then designed seed coats that would allow their seeds to hitchike, like pinecones and berries, fly through the air like maples and dandelions, and float by water like coconuts and cranberries.  The students tested their designs for effectiveness.

THANK YOU to all the parents who supported this year's fund-an-item of supplying our classrooms with smartboards.  I had a chance to bring the demo board to the class for the morning that the students LOVED interacting with the board.  They will be installed and ready for use either at the end of this year, or definately this fall.

NB, DS, and AD testing their floating seeds

EJ has made a flying seed.  I hope it works!!

Will this flying seed be successful??  You'll have to ask MP.