Encourage Discovery!

Encourage students to discover!  The joy of discovery motivates students to learn. Remember your first successful attempt at riding a bicycle and the excitement you experienced? It is not that you were the first person in the world to ride a bicycle, but what mattered was that you discovered that you could do it. It is this process of discovery that we need to recreate for learning in classrooms. People learn through a discovery process. 

Here are some wonderful discoveries about plants in our classroom - 

look, see and discover!

Planting lima beans in a plastic baggie.  Will they really sprout in a bag?  Next, plant sprouts into seedling pots.  Discover the changes and make notes about your observations.  Do all of your seedlings grow?  Which grew best?   Wonder if there will be a  harvest of real lima beans?   Discovery and conversation happen every morning around this 'wonderful windowful'. 

starting out in plastic bag

transplant in cup

watching and observing growth and change

amazing plants

And another discovery…you can grow plants in a CD case!
the children love this!

 We are also growing paperwhite (narcissus) bulbs.  Students had a choice to plant them in water, rocks or soil.  Each student has 2 bulbs.  They are observing, taking notes and keeping a plant journal about their plants.  We are hoping to have flowers by Christmas and take these home as a family gift.  

forcing paperwhite bulbs

bulbs with shoots

buds appearing

and flowers!

2 easy experiments to do in your classroom:  

How will the celery change?  Why did it do that?

What is happening with this plant?

Children are keeping a plant journal of all the wonderful plant activity they discover.  They are making observations, jotting down notes, talking with each other and comparing the different plants and their growth or lack of it.  We are discovering and graphing paperwhite activity by placing a circle dot next to roots, shoots, buds and flowers.  Each student places a colored circle when each is observed.  Our 'wonderful windowful discoveries' provides us with many language opportunities for  reading, writing, speaking and listening, as well as math and science! Be sure to check back -  plant journals will be posted soon for you to download and use in your classroom.

Make newspaper seedling pots.  

Very inexpensive and easy ….find the link HERE for directions.

 What will you discover today?

Using Children's Literature As a Springboard for Writing Assignments

House Held Up By Trees
by Ted Kooser  Illustrated by Jon Klassen

Read this book to your class as a springboard for a writing assignment.  It is one of those books that grabs their attention on page 1.   The story starts out with a brand new house sitting on a 'perfect' lawn. Not a single tree!  So what's perfect about that??   especially to someone who happens to love trees.  Your listeners right away listen in closely to examine this author's message and find it curious why someone would want a yard without one single sprout or tree.  

 And, in search for a place for play and adventure, the children in the story find wild trees of all kinds in the neighboring lots.  At this point, your listeners will give a sigh of relief and applaud the wisdom of children.
Yet, the father in the story continues his battle to keep blowing seeds and sprouting trees out of his perfect lawn.  The children grow up and move away and their father continues to keep his lawn so very, very perfect.  Until one day, the father moves away too. And that is when the empty house began its decline or ascent (depending how you look upon it)....the trees began their approach.

This book is wistful and exhilarating! It evokes the inexorable passage of time and gives us the inspiring power of nature.  An uplifting story for all ages!

After reading this book, my third graders had many comments and questions... and they were absolutely delighted with their writing assignment for the day.  They were to make a list of materials they needed to build a treehouse.  Next, they would also design and draw their treehouse so a builder or architect might build their treehouse using their drawing.    Finally, they were to write directions to build their treehouse, implementing order of events, transition words such as first, next, then, finally etc.  

Children were working within 2 minutes after transitioning from listening area to desks and tables.  Materials were :  pencils, paper, both lined and drawing, and their writing folders in which to reference high frequency words and checklists.  These third graders were able to sustain for 35 minutes engaged in writing and asked could they have more time to work on this the following day!  

Excellent books and authors can help tremendously in teaching writing.  Published authors can be writing models for ways to start a piece of writing, new vocabulary, organization, springboard for new ideas, and voice.  This book was jammed packed with science vocabulary about trees, plants, life cycles and more.  This book engaged the children in attentive listening and motivated them to delve deeper in their thinking when discussing why a perfect lawn would have trees or would not have trees.  

Writing Samples from this book:

third grader's writing response to House Held Up By Trees by Ted Koozer
This is a 1st draft of materials needed for 'my treehouse' and a drawing of the treehouse--
next step is to write an 'order of events' piece about building the treehouse

drawing, writing piece 'order of events'  and materials list  *this is 1st draft; 3rd grader*

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog!  Check back as I hope to write more often.