Plant Buddies

One of the great things about spring, other than warmer weather, is seeing all the trees and flowers finally come back to life.  Even though I'm allergic to all of them, I still think they're beautiful.

 

When I first started teaching kindergarten, almost a decade ago - yikes!, we planted seeds and watched them grow. 

 

Or at least we tried.

 

I seriously have a black thumb.  I can keep any animal or pet alive, but not a plant.

 

So after a few years of will the plants grow or wont they grow, I decided to give this another go.

 

First, we read up on all things plant related.

 

Including this awesome set from scholastic.

 

These are the same kinds of books as my ladybug book that we used for all of our ladybug activities.  Check those out here.

 

I really love this style of nonfiction text for Pre-K and Kindergarten because the photographs cover an entire page and there isn't too much text.  Just the essentials.

Then we made our monthly "are, can, have" chart.  I forgot to take pictures of the finished products, so I'll add those in later.

I found the cutest idea for planting grass on TpT.  It's a little Mr. Potato Head themed plant from Little Priorities.  Check it out here.  It had little eyes, ears, noses, mouths, and feet pieces.  I copied them on cardstock, cut them apart, and put them in labeled baggies.

 

I decided that planting our plant buddies during centers would be easiest on me so that I would only have to do three students each day.  So plant buddies was our Art Mart center this week.

 

I had all the little parts, clear plastic cups, and a sharpie to write names on cups in the center tub ready to go.  And there's a little bit of potting soil down in the bottom too because I make a mess every time I scoop out some soil.

I went to Walmart and bought our other necessities.  I purchased a special seed starting potting mix and grass seed.

 

I honestly had no idea what to buy in the gardening section at Walmart and was a bit overwhelmed.  I've heard that grass can grow in almost any conditions so I chose grass seed.  Plus, I thought it would look cute for their plant buddy to have grass hair.  Like a chia pet!

 

In the picture you can also see the cup I used to scoop out the potting soil, a pencil I used to stir up the seeds and soil, and another cup I used for watering.  I'm very savvy when it comes to gardening and gardening tools, not!  Haha!

I just love how they turned out!!

 

So adorable.

 

I did used hot glue to attach the paper pieces to the cups, I figured it would be easiest and quickest.

I was getting concerned because we started planting these last Thursday and by Wednesday none had started sprouting!  Plus it rained all week, so there was little sunlight coming through my windows, and our air conditioning kept breaking, so it felt like a tropical rainforest in my room. 

Then on Friday I came in and saw a few little sprouts finally popping up...and MOLD!  Yuck!

 

I was afraid of messing up the little grass sprouts, so I didn't try to mess with the mold.  I don't really know if I should leave it or try to scrape it out.  But the grass it growing despite the mold.

Yay finally!!  I really was getting worried that I had killed the grass.

The ones planted on Monday and Tuesday still haven't started sprouting, but I'm a bit more hopeful now that I'll see them poking up from the soil when I go back to school Monday. 

On a side note.  We finally were able to work on our April stained glass window art. 

 

I love these cute umbrellas!

 

They are perfect the rainy spring we've had so far.



Next week we will be working on Mother's Day!  I found the cutest craft and writing activity, so I'll share all about them and showcase our finished products.

 

Yes, I like to get things done early.

 

So stay tuned!