Planting Party!

This week has been a planting party in 2R! Many of us had success growing our lima beans, and now we are going to try our hand with some new plants!

 At the beginning of the week, we studied the packets of seeds we were going to plant in order to learn about what we were planting and how to best help them grow. Once we took notes for each packet and discussed what we should do, we got to planting:

We will now be trying to grow spinach, rainbow blend chard, and pole beans!

Later in the week, we created mini greenhouses to grow some of our pole beans in. We each designed a greenhouse to hang in the window. We placed 2 bean seeds in a plastic bag with a damp paper towel and sealed the bag, which was then stapled to our greenhouse. Not only will the sealed bag water the seed for us, but we will also be able to see the roots grow through the plastic! Hopefully some of our seeds will germinate over the weekend :) 

We also placed some cosmos seeds in a slightly larger greenhouse to see how the plants were able to water themselves in the enclosed environment. We noticed water was collecting on the top of the plastic as it evaporated from the soil, and then it would condense and fall from the lid like rain!

In just a few short days, we were already beginning to see some growth :) We can't wait to see what all of our plants look like when we return to school on Monday!

Wildlife Encounters: Animals That Burrow

We have been learning a lot about rocks and minerals and how they contribute to the soil, which we will study even further when we learn about plants. To help us learn a bit more about what animals can do for our soil, Krista from Wildlife Encounters brought us 6 different animals who help the soil all around the world!

The first animal Krista brought out was Monster the Black and White Tegu. Tegus like to eat snails and mollusks with their shell-crunching jaws. Because the Tegus have such a powerful jaw, they are able to break down the shells much more quickly than the Earth can, and they deposit the nutrients from the shells directly into the soil! Tegus live in South America in tropical and subtropical climates. 

The second animal Krista shared with us was Butch the Madagascar Ground Boa Constrictor. Butch was a bit feisty, and he likes to dig holes in the ground that are big enough for his body. This provides channels for water to get deep into the soil and it also aerates the soil. Like all snakes, Butch has a very small brain and only has a memory of about 7 minutes, so they run solely on instinct!

The next animal that Krista brought out was very, very silly! His name was Sid the Salmon-Crested Cockatoo and he showed us some of his crazy dance moves and even imitated a fire alarm! Cockatoos, like many birds, eat nuts and seeds from trees and deposit the bits and pieces that they don't digest all around their environment., which brings nutrients to the soil and causes new trees and plants to grow. Sid's species also happens to be on the critically endangered list, so it is important to preserve and protect their natural habitat on the Moluccas Islands.

Krista then brought out Daffy the Flemish Giant Rabbit. Despite only being a few months old, Daffy is already 23 lbs.! Daffy likes to eat all sorts of plants (especially plants from vegetable gardens!) and she deposits the nutrients for these plants throughout the soil in her surroundings. Daffy's species is originally from Europe and was later brought to the U.S.

Krista also shared a very shy animal with us named Nibbles the Patagonian Cavy. Nibbles also is an omnivore (a plant eater) who deposits nutrients into the soil from the plants he eats. Nibbles is a relative to the guinea pig and can run up to 40 mph! His species lives in South America. We learned that if animals have eyes on the side, they like to hide. Eyes on the front, they like to hunt!

Rex the African Spurred Tortoise can usually be found in the Sahara Desert. Rex has great arms and claws for digging, which helps to bring air and water deep into the soil, just like Butch! Rex can dig holes so big, that three adults could fit inside by standing on one another's shoulders! Rex is only 25 now, but he can live to be over 100 years old. The rings around his shell tell us about how many growth spurts he has had, and he could grow to be as big as the black carpet he was standing on!

After the presentation, Krista let us pet Monster, Rex, Butch, and Daffy. Monster's skin felt like a football and Daffy was very fluffy. Rex went on an adventure all around Mrs. Healey's room! 

Thank you to Wildlife Encounters for bringing such a meaningful learning experience to our classroom! We truly appreciate having the opportunity to do some hands-on learning with some very cool animals! 

Rockin' Out

This week, we started our exploration of rocks for science. At the beginning of the week, we wrote about and shared what we already knew about rocks:

Did you know...

• rocks can be very big or very small
• sand is made of tiny pieces of rock
• some rocks are smooth and some are bumpy
• some rocks have crystals inside
• there are different types of rock--igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rock (we learned this in our nonfiction reading!)
• some rocks have Micah
• lots of things are made with rocks

We also came up with a list of questions we still had about them:

We are wondering...

• Are some rocks harder than others?
• How do rocks get smooth?
• What kinds of rocks have crystals?
• What kinds of rocks are shiny?
• How many years does it take for a rock to become clay?
• What kinds of rocks have fossils?
• How far into the ground do you need to dig to find rocks with fossils of dinosaurs?
• What are rocks made of?
• How far do you need to dig to find diamonds?
• What kinds of crystals are in rocks?
• How many types of rocks are there?

While we can find many of the answers to these questions by looking in our nonfiction books and doing a bit of online research, we can also find some answers by doing a bit of exploring ourselves! We went on at rock hunt outside of our classroom to begin collecting some specimens on Wednesday:

On Thursday, we talked about different ways we could sort our rocks. After brainstorming lots of ideas for how we could sort our rocks, we each chose our own sorting method and came up with categories to sort our rocks into. After sorting our rocks, we went around the room to see how others chose to sort theirs:

We will continue to do some more exploring with our rocks and other rocks next week!

Seeds Are Sprouting and Spring Is Here!

Ms. Riley took home our seeds over vacation to water them and help them grow. Since it has been so warm and sunny this week, they have really started to take off! These are what most of our seeds looked like on Monday when we returned to school:

And this is what they looked like by Friday:

They are just loving all of that sunny, warm weather, and so are we! We took our sprouts home today (unless we biked to school, then we will take them home on Monday!) The sweet pea seeds seem to be taking a longer time to grow, so we added another seed into the pot in hopes those will start sprouting soon, too. When the sprouts are strong enough, the entire pot can be planted in the ground because it is decomosable! Be sure to plant them in a space that gets plenty of sun, and enjoy!

Science Magic- Exploring Soil with Ms. Arnold

For this week's Science Magic experiment, we headed over to 2AA to explore soil with Ms. Arnold! During our science talk, Ms. Arnold asked us which material would hold water the longest-sand, soil, or rocks? Many of us hypothesized that soil would hold water the longest, so we put our theory to the test.

To test our hypothesis, we took turns pouring water through sand, soil, and rocks that were sitting on coffee filters above a cup and we timed how long it took for the water to run through it. We stopped timing after the last drip on each material we tested.

After testing each material, we discovered that rocks held onto water for the longest amount of time! According to Science Clarified, soil is made up of about 50% solid material and 50% space, with 90% of that solid material being rocks and minerals. Many of us thought it would be interesting to test these materials again to see which one would hold the most water. Perhaps you could try it at home!