Time to Pollinate!

On Monday we got to use our bee sticks and polinate our plants. We 'flew' the bees from blossom to blossom moving the pollin around then let our bees go visit our friend's plants. Because not all of the blossoms were ready on Monday, we also did some pollinating on Tuesday as well. Now it's incredible because we can actually see how the pistol of the blossoms have grown after the petals have fallen off. Some of our plants already have pretty big seed pods! Cool!

Bees Please!!

Thursday in science we learned about bees and how important they are to the life cycle of plants. We got ready to pollinate our brassica rappa plants by making our own bee stick pollinator! It was 'scary', 'gross', 'weird' ...but mostly cool! Now we'll be ready to 'fly' it from plant to plant on Monday to start the pollination process!

My computer in class has been giving me fits lately and, according to the district tech guy, has messed up the internet in 1/2 the school. He came to fix it Thursday (during conferences - no less), but in the process has wiped out my entire hard drive. I'm not sure when I'll really be able to use it again. So now I'm technologically deprived! Yikes! It sure lets me know how dependent I am on the computer and the internet.

It was great to be able to meet with each of you for SEP conferences last week. These are such incredible kids this year that it makes talking about them a lot of fun! Thanks for taking the time to come in. It sure makes a difference!

Brush Up!!!

Wednesday we got to see Dr. Aaron Cloward, a dentist who works in Spanish Fork. He taught us about our teeth and how to take care of them. Paige and Evan got to do an experiment with a pink revealing tablet to show how well they could brush their teeth. Then we all got to take one of the tablets home, along with a new toothbrush, toothpaste, and floss! Thanks Dr. Cloward!

They must be magic seeds!

We can't believe how fast our plants are growing! They already have some buds on and will be blooming any time now! It's been so fun watching them grow.

I'm excited for SEP conferences this week and having the chance to brag about the great kids in our classroom. They've been working hard and doing great. I can't believe that it's already the end of the 3rd term! Yikes!

Horray for Fractured Fairytales!!!

Friday we performed our puppet plays. The kids did 4 different plays: Little Late Riding Hood, The Emperor's New Hair, The Three Silly Goats Gruff, and The Prince Frog. They did such a great job and had a wonderful time. I was so proud of how expressive and loud their voices were. The kids decided that rather than keep the puppets at school and have another performance next week for their moms and dads, they wanted to take the puppets home and I'd make a video of the plays that they could keep. (Okay, it took a little prodding on my part, but they did decide...really!!) So in a couple days, after I can get 20 DVDs rendered they'll be able to take theirs home to show their parents. It was a lot of fun, but I, for one, am anxious to move on now.
Our brassica rappa plants are doing great! They're already up and close to an inch tall! It's exciting to see them change every day!
Last week, for part of our rock unit, all the kids chose a rock that they wanted to polish. I took them to the rock shop in Spanish Fork and they polished them for me in their tumbler. It was so exciting to get them back after just a few days! They're beautiful! We have loved learning about rocks and will hate to see that unit end! Oh well, moving on to bigger, better things...

We're now botonists!!!

Today we had a man from Red Butte Gardens in Salt Lake come to our classroom and teach us about seeds. We even got to plant a 4-pack of our own. We learned about the seed coat, the embryo and the food storage found in each seed. We're excited to grow our own plants at the back of the room and plan to take these plants through the whole plant cycle - from germination, to plant, flower, and back to seed. It was fun today and we're way excited to watch our plants change.