Bee Expert

Students were so excited to meet our local bee expert, Jessica Goldstrom from The Bees Waggle.

During the first out of 6 visits, students did the hard work of a scientist by closely observing different flowers.

During this visit, students learned all about pollination and how new seeds are made.

They enjoyed learning about the parts of a flower and how pollen is transferred.  We look forward to many weekly visits from our local expert.

Gardening

Thanks to the amazing spring weather this week, we headed outside to plant our cool weather seeds (lettuce, kale and spinach).  In our second case study about plants, students have been learning about what plants need to thrive and the parts of a plant.  

This week, students learned about what grows best in Colorado and sorted fruits/vegetables by warm weather and cool weather crops.  Students then decided what they thought we should plant in the garden.  Each student wrote a persuasive paragraph to convince our 1st grade crew on what we should plant.  Strawberries were a crew favorite!

During the warm day, we discussed how gardeners must tend their garden.  Each student was tasked with pulling weeds and turning the soil before we could plant.  The students took ownership and pride in their hard work.

Students were so excited to get to plant and look forward to harvesting our healthy lettuce, spinach and kale.

Plant Parts

We have been learning all about plants and the parts that they have.  What better way for our first grade botanist to share his/her learning than through play.  Botanists collaborated with a small group to use pattern blocks to show the parts of the plant.

Each group used their own creativity and perspective to make a variety of plants.  Students had 30 minutes to collaborate together.  Our collaboration muscle is getting really strong.

Both students and I thought that this was much more engaging assessment than a worksheet.  I loved to see the creativity, critical thinking and collaboration.