We’ve had a full and fun week. There are lots of different projects going on to inspire different ideas and wonderings.

Observing Change

This week we began two different growing projects. On Monday the children chose four different types of seeds to plant in a clear plastic cup. Some were flowers and others vegetables. Some seeds were large and others tiny. The first step of the experiment was to plant and then make a hypothesis – Which seed did they think would sprout first and why? Some children thought the largest seed would sprout first and others thought the smallest ones would. What they didn’t expect was that sprouting might have to do with roots, rather than the green shoot coming from the soil. It was exciting to begin noticing changes in just two days and to see the changes continue in each cup. In some cups marigolds sprouted first, while in others morning glories. Some beans seem to have sprouted but not zucchini or basil. We are wondering if that are factors beyond seed size that effect germination.

Our second growing project is planting broccoli as part of the school-wide square foot gardening project. We planted those seeds in small cups with a germination mat and grow light. We started them on Tuesday and on Thursday the first green shoot was showing. Our goal will be to have at least one broccoli plant growing in the greenhouse at the end of March. We hope we’ll have broccoli to share in the cafeteria by the end of school. We also hope to have broccoli plants to send home for you to enjoy all summer.

The rain kept us in this week, but final part of our growing project will for each child to adopt a school-yard tree and observe how it changes with the changing seasons. We hope to see the flowers and how the seeds begin to form. There is a wide variety of trees around the school and it will be interesting to compare and contrast the changes we see among the trees and also the different types of plants and seeds we are observing. The final step to this project will be planting some trees here at school as we learn to be responsible stewards of our Earth.

Special Guests

This week Caleb’s grandfather who is a State Police officer in the K9 unit came with another trooper, Officer Devlin, and did a demonstration for us. They shared their incredible dogs and talked to us about the kinds of things they do with their dogs to train them and work with them to keep us safe.   Later that day we met Randy Pierce from Nashua. In his twenties, within two weeks time he lost his sight completely. His message was one about choices. He chose to dream big and never give up. He has chosen to believe that he can do anything he sets his mind to. He has climbed all the 4000-footers in NH. He hiked Mt. Kilimanjaro and run a Boston Marathon. Of course he has done this with the help of others. For him TEAM is an acronym – Together Everyone Achieves More. That seems like a great motto for our class. It is true.  The better we work together to build a classroom community of support and collaboration the more we all learn.

Bits and Pieces –

• We had some great book club meetings this week. The children have been enjoying reading together and discussing what they’ve found interesting as they read. It has been fun to decide why authors include things in their writing and how even small details matter.
• We’ve been learning about Wonders in Betty Birney’s The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs. Thank you for helping us uncover some of the history of our country and our town. We’ll be looking for Wonders as we research the states and our country as well.
• We’ve learned half of our cursive capitals. Once we finish them all we’ll be making a creating a class alphabet. I wonder what theme we will decide to center it on.
• We have a challenge with Mr. Caron next week and should be prepared to be outdoor – it is often cool if we’re in the woods.