Some observations from the last few days of Class 2o's investigations into plant life.

All sorts of activities and discussions took place during the final days of our second unit of inquiry "Our World of Plants".

The children were invited to bring in their bean plants to share with their classmates. This was a very real learning experience, which connected well with comments Cova had made during our gardening sessions, that we don't always know whether what we plant will grow, even if we do our best to look after it!. Some of the children remembered to bring their plants, others forgot; some had to admit that their plant had not survived, while a few plants had grown too big to transport!

Have a look at the slide-show to view the plants which thrived. The bean without a person, which appears to have reached the ceiling, belongs to Rik!



We had rather complex discusions about fruits and vegetables and which is which. Of course, much of the confusion arises because quite a few fruits are eaten as what we call vegetables, for example: tomatoes, pumpkins, peppers and courgettes. We came up with the definition that fruits grow out of the flower and contain seeds.
I found this comment about fruits and vegetables on WIkipedia and found that it fits perfectly with the class2o idea of what a fruit is.

"A fruit is actually the sweet, ripened ovary or ovaries of a seed-
bearing plant. A vegetable, in contrast, is an herbaceous plant
cultivated for an edible part (seeds, roots, stems, leaves, bulbs,
tubers, or nonsweet fruits). So, to be really nitpicky, a fruit could
be a vegetable, but a vegetable could not be a fruit."

The challenge to fill a lunchbox, if there were no plants, also provoked an amazing discussion, because the realisation gradually began to dawn, that in fact without plants, there would not be much to eat, if anything, and only water to drink.

We made predictions. What would happen to the cress seeds which were given water but left in the dark? Would celery change if put in a glass with water and red food colouring? After a few days we looked carefully and shared observations. The cress which had been in the dark was yellow and straggly but soon turned green when left in the light.The leaves of the celery became red and when we cut through the stem we could see small red dots where the liquid had travelled up the celery stem.

We had fun tasting the cress with bread and butter. YUMMY.

The class 2o students have definitely become more knowledgeable about plants, and it has been great to observe how everything we have done in the garden with Cova, has been so relevant to all the work which has taken place inside the classroom.